Supermarket shelves are increasingly more and more empty. Brexit and Covid-19 both impact all industries negatively. Brexit causes a problem with supply of products and Covid-19 causes a shortage of staff.

Social media was full of photographs taken by shoppers of fresh fruit and vegetable sections being completely empty, the same goes for online shopping where the produce is listed out of stock.

Consumers have been told that they should expect no changes in the coming days due to border delays and changes in trading rules which cause confusion and slow everything down.

The problems arise due to the new rules and new paperwork necessary for cross-border freight some of the businesses and freight companies simply do not know how to navigate within this new system yet. This creates supply and demand issues that consumers are faced with. As soon as abovementioned companies and businesses become fluent in operating according to the new rules the stocks and shelves should soon be replenished.

Michael Gove who is the Cabinet Office minister highlighted the fact that the problems will escalate before they improve as we have not reached the peak yet. The most profound disruption is in the port of Dover-Calais.

The rulebook has been released for the businesses and companies only six hours before the transition took place so they did not have the time to adopt the new strategies seamlessly. It is the role of the government to ensure that all those who need information on necessary paperwork are communicated with as soon as possible to allow for less problems further along the chain where we find empty shelves in our local supermarkets.