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IT’S BEEN ALMOST a year since the Beast from the East covered the country in snow and brought Ireland to a standstill.
Flights, trains and other public transport was disrupted; students were told they had a few days off, and some companies told their employees to stay at home.
But before the snow even hit, it was having an impact. On the eve before the storm hit, stores across Ireland reported that they were experiencing a surge in demand for bread (and other products).
Stores looked to reassure their customers: Tesco, Lidl and Supervalu all asked their suppliers to provide extra stocks to meet the increased demand.
At the end of February, ahead of a snow-ice warning brought on by the Beast from the East and Storm Emma, a spokesman for bread suppliers Johnston, Mooney and O’Brien told TheJournal.ie that the company had “significantly increased our production to meet the dramatic increase in sales being experienced” due to the “unprecedented demand levels experienced yesterday and today”.
Looking back now, what made us go mad for bread?
“I think it was a bit of a comfort but also a slight bit of panic,” Gerald Cunningham, president of the Flour Confectioners and Bakers Association tells TheJournal.ie.
It was the hunter-gatherer nature of people.
“But there’s also the community side of it, and the fear of ‘God, if we’ve no bread what are we going to eat?’ It’s a staple in Irish houses.”
Cunningham said that there is also a “very Irish feel” and a “traditional” element to bread for Irish people that makes them feel they need it in their house regularly.
In a study commissioned for bread week, it analysed why people rushed to buy bread. It found that 40% of people felt reassured by simply having bread in the house, and that sharing bread increased their sense of social solidarity.
The survey, which asked 1,000 adults on the island of Ireland a series of questions about their consumption of bread, found that 95% of those surveyed ate it at least once a week.
Around 30% of people stockpile bread, and 40% have bread in the freezer.
Brexit
This March, breadmakers (and eaters) are facing a new and totally different threat: Brexit.
There are three mills on the island of Ireland, with just one located in the Republic of Ireland – in Portarlington, Co Laois.
However, it only produces retail flour, as in the bags sold on shelves for home baking. With those minuscule numbers, 95% of all flour used for making bread actually comes from the UK.
In the event of a no-deal Brexit, tariffs will be placed on these flour imports which could result in a charge of €172 per tonne of flour
This would then have an knock-on impact on the price of bread; Cunningham says the price could rise by between 10% and 15% in a no-deal Brexit scenario.
If this were to happen, bakers could start looking for flour suppliers outside of the UK, which could result in massive job losses to British mills.
As people try to prepare for the worst case scenario, the options for bakers are limited, Cunningham says.
Bread is a perishable product, so you can’t stockpile it. A sliced pan might have a seven-day shelf life, while you’d eat fresh crunchy bread in more or less 24 hours.
He adds that smaller artisan bakers might be able to stockpile flour ahead of the threat of increased tariffs, but that was more difficult for industrial chains that would need more space.
There’s also the additional difficulty that some flour actually has a shelf life of around 4 months, meaning that if a baker buys flour now to stockpile, that baker has to be sure that all of it will be used in that timeframe.
Sugar imports would also be hit with high tariffs in a no-deal Brexit; although sugar isn’t used in breadmaking, many bakers are also confectionery makers, so would be affected by this, too.
Is Cunningham worried that Brexit will mean more bread shortages and empty shelves, or will they be more full than they are now because bread will be a lot more expensive?
I’d like to think that the shelves will be full, we don’t want to panic and put more pressure on bread-making businesses.
“The main point is that ports need to stay open and free-flowing, the same with the borders,” he says.
“I can’t see a benefit from a hard Brexit… I really would like to think that politicians would see common sense to postpone it and negotiate it properly.
“It’s the uncertainty of it, we’re being asked all the time what’s the policy – we’re just kind of headlining a hard-Brexit scenario.”
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Ah the 28th of Feb. last, 2.5 days working* from home.
*mainly playing Wolfenstein The New Order
@Bill Clay: That’s a great game.
Brexit was negotiated. There is no solution. Everybody has had long enough. For the love of sense, do not extend the deadline. Dog sick of it!
There is no excuse for this cr@p. They have had two and a half years to source commercial flour from the continent, is it the case they really have not tried or is this just an excuse to gouge the public like they did when we changed to the Euro.
This is a case where the government needs to kick @ss,
Going to need a lot of bread to buy bread.
And on the other hand the IFA etc are saying Irish farmers will lose out – beef going to take a massive hit over tariffs on exports to the U.K. …. which way is it – the media would suggest that the Irish – both suppliers & consumers are are going to be paying the tariffs – whether on imports or exports????
@Angela Lavin: that’s correct, goods moving in both directions will be subject to tariffs, that’s how they work. Countries within a free trade area like the EU agree not to charge tariffs on each other’s imports and exports. If the UK go for a hard brexit they will lose out on this benefit.
@Ray Murphy: on their exports. They can choose not to apply or collect tariffs on imports if they want.
@Winston Smith: Yes they could, but (and this a very important but) to do so the UK would be obliged by WTO rules to apply Zero Tariffs to every country they import from without exception. And such how would UK agriculture and domestic industry cope with a flood of cheap imports with zero tariffs? Not very well I would think. Cheap South American Beef, US Grain, Australian/ New Zealand Lamb, EU Pork and Dairy, Thai Chicken, Chinese and Indian manufactured goods. All would devastate the UK domestic economy
@Mick.: Import quotas.
Should get some of the older mills back up and running. Flour can be produced and sourced here..no need to paying tariffs across the water.. create jobs here too.
Buy a bag of flour and bake your own. Then at least it won’t be half baked like Brexit.
I gave up eating bread after not being able to buy some for the few days last March. It was a wonderful decision. I feel much better without it.
@Ed: me too I feel much better
So retail flour will not get more expensive. I bake my own bread. It’s really not a rocket since. And certainly it’s more healthy as I know what’s exactly in my bread. If someone is afraid of rising prices than they should start baking their own bread. We are being scared that food will get more expensive. If it dose, people will stop buying as much and sellers will have to figure out how to bring the prices down. Maybe the import directly from the continent will became more attractive.
Buy Irish or european products, why buy British ?
If a country chooses not to apply tariffs the decision applies to imports from all countries. no tariffs will apply to US chicken, beef, etc. if no tariffs apply to Irish products
@Tom Burke: general tariffs yes, you can apply special rate tariffs, but only if you can justify them, because when others feel hard done by, the fallout from retaliation and litigation will hurt.
have your say