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A good practical example is food. We grow 61% of the food we eat, but if you look specifically at fruit and veg, there's a huge deficit in fruit and vegetable production. In 2015, imports of fruits to the UK were valued at £3.1 billion; imports of fresh vegetables (excluding potatoes because they're not vegetables they're a carb) at £2.1 billion.
55% of our tomatoes come from the EU - a lot from the Netherlands, which despite being tiny is the second largest exporter of food behind only the U.S. (because they've embraced modern high tech farming methods).
How do we come about those figures? I hope its not from Supermarkets saying "we sold x amount of ORIGIN - UK labeled stock"
Because you'd never suspect the UK producers to paper over an unforseen supply shortage due to weather with some euro stock to fill in the gaps...
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Yukirin
Fox
It often seems to be based on the fact the UK is UK is either the second or third largest economy in the EU (leavers often say it's the second of course but it depends on the measures used).
But given we're a net importer and all our exports via road have to go via Europe...
A good practical example is food. We grow 61% of the food we eat, but if you look specifically at fruit and veg, there's a huge deficit in fruit and vegetable production. In 2015, imports of fruits to the UK were valued at £3.1 billion; imports of fresh vegetables (excluding potatoes because they're not vegetables they're a carb) at £2.1 billion.
55% of our tomatoes come from the EU - a lot from the Netherlands, which despite being tiny is the second largest exporter of food behind only the U.S. (because they've embraced modern high tech farming methods).
Britain will never be self-sufficient in food production, according to the president of the NFU.
But right, they need us more than we need them...