British direct attack | Supermarkets are emptied, petrol stations are short of gas and closed for business. People in the UK and Hong Kong: Panic buying

Food shortage in the UK?

The petrol station is closed, and there is a shortage of supplies?

Recently, there have been a lot of posts in the Hong Kong people's migration group, worrying about and not understanding why supermarkets are out of stock and long queues at petrol stations, and this has aroused a lot of discussion.

During the period of Brexit and the post-epidemic period in the United Kingdom, many types of jobs were under-staffed. Among them, the vacancies for large trucks were as high as 100,000, and food and products could not be delivered, which directly caused the British people's livelihood problems.

Anthony, a large truck from Hong Kong, has experienced Brexit and the new crown epidemic. His daily job is to deliver food to the supermarket.

He told "Hong Kong 01" that the shortage of people in the industry had already appeared before Brexit, but the closing of the petrol station did not affect commercial vehicles. Therefore, he did not believe that there would be a large shortage of goods during the lockdown period. "You What about the shortage of food? I really don’t feel it, it’s just that the delivery is slow. It’s not really talking about no food."

(Special correspondent McCain directly reports from the UK)

CF Industries, one of the world's largest crop fertilizer manufacturers and distributors, announced earlier that in response to rising natural gas prices, it will suspend the operation of carbon dioxide plants in Billingham and Chester, UK, and many food plants may suspend production as a result.

Although the British government immediately reached an agreement with the reopening, it was reported that the oil company BP had to close some petrol stations due to insufficient truck drivers, causing long queues at the petrol stations.

"Guardian" quoted government news, worried that the panic buying during the epidemic would happen again.

The picture shows a notice posted outside a petrol station in Bracknell, UK on September 26, 2021, stating that there is no fuel supply there.

(AP)

The reporter has visited some supermarkets, and some of the soda, some meat, bread or rice are out of stock, and there are shelves showing "Please bear with us. We're experiencing high demand." (Please wait for us, we are facing high demand. Slogan during the demand period.

But the problem is not serious, because the staff replenish the goods as usual every morning, and they also revealed that fresh food is delivered to the supermarket every day.

There are shelves displaying the slogan "Please bear with us. We're experiencing high demand."

(Photo by McCain)

In addition, some Hong Kong people working in a chain of fast food restaurants also revealed to reporters that the company "no chickens" could not provide some menus, and "not enough goods" caused some branches to shorten their business hours.

Manpower shortage after Brexit, the epidemic has exacerbated the problem

In fact, the main cause of the food crisis in the UK is the shortage of manpower in the transport industry. Anthony, who has been in the UK for more than 10 years, has been involved in the local transport industry for 4 years and witnessed Brexit and the epidemic. There are a lot of people in Eastern Europe. Ikea’s 100,000 vacancies are just a lot of talk, but it’s not enough for people all the way."

Drivers from Eastern Europe are generally 20% lower in labor than locals. In addition, the British government implemented new tax arrangements in the first quarter of this year. This has caused European truck drivers to pay heavier taxes in the UK, speeding up the departure of Eastern European drivers.

Anthony believes that the UK has measures to allocate fuel to commercial vehicles and other priority use.

(Provided by interviewee)

Coupled with the fact that the epidemic has stabilized, many Britons have become addicted to travel, and they have traveled to other countries during the summer vacation, and the manpower problem has worsened.

Anthony also has at least 4 colleagues who also took a long vacation. "We are the most surprised by IKEA in the industry because Christmas is really the busiest and busiest."

Drivers in the UK and Hong Kong: It’s not because of the slow replenishment of food.

Anthony transports frozen and fresh food from the warehouse to the supermarket every day. He works as usual. Therefore, he does not think that there is a food shortage in the UK. "There is absolutely no way to sell food," but the delivery time has become longer.

He pointed out that there is insufficient manpower for loading and unloading from the warehouse, so even if the goods are delivered on time, it does not necessarily mean that there is someone to put on the shelves immediately, which makes the shortage time longer.

Regarding this series of incidents, Anthony has agreed to leave the European Union for a while, and the number of drivers will not suddenly drop or rise sharply within a few weeks. For example, does the closing of a petrol station mean that there is no gas?

"Our commercial vehicles are filling up every day." He believes that this time it is more of "Panic Buying" (panic buying). I hope people in the UK and Hong Kong will not worry too much.

The shortage of manpower in the British transport industry affects society. The society urges the government to open up again and hire foreign workers. Many domestic companies have also increased manual labor to retain manpower. However, there has been no solution within the government, and the Secretary of Transport Grant Shapps does not want to have it. The locals have further left the transportation industry due to cheap labor in Europe.

So will Hong Kong people who emigrate become a member of the local transportation industry?

However, the United Kingdom does not recognize Hong Kong's large-scale truck licenses. If you want to join, you will have to go to the classroom to test the license. I believe that Hong Kong people will not become a new force in a short time.

01News

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