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‘It’s a disaster’: How British stores in Spain are being hit by Brexit

With reports that UK food exports to Spain have dropped by more than half due to Brexit, The Local spoke to Inge Barker of A Taste of Home stores in Spain to find out how it's affecting her business.

Published: 17 September 2021 16:46 CEST
'It's a disaster': How British stores in Spain are being hit by Brexit
How are British supermarkets in Spain being affected by Brexit? Photo: Tolga AKMEN / AFP

UK food and drink exports to the EU are suffering a huge decline, costing the industry €2 billion in losses. 

Among Member States, Spain is the country that’s seen the biggest drop in British produce arriving to its shores since Brexit, a 54 percent fall in 2021 when compared to 2019 figures. 

The Local Spain spoke to Inge Barker who runs A Taste of Home – a chain of three British shops in Barcelona, Sitges and Cubelles in Catalonia – who told us how the situation is affecting her. 

How has your store/business been affected by the drop in food exports from the UK?  

“We’ve definitely been feeling it, Brexit has not been good for our business. With the drop in exports, extra costs, and red tape, it’s a total disaster. 

I have three shops and lots of staff, at the moment, they are my main priority,” she said. 

Are there any particular products that are affected more than others? 

“Yes, at the moment it’s the meat and dairy which is being affected the most. This is because we now need to get a vet certificate for any animal products we want to import, and for this, we are forced to pay £100 on each order.

Right now we are ok for meat because we made lots of advance orders, but I don’t know what’s going to happen. There is also going to be an issue with Christmas products. We ordered our Christmas products such as crackers and puddings back in June, but now sellers are telling us they’re out of stock already. 

Because all the crackers and other Christmas things like that are made in China costs have risen for these too and have added an extra level of problems. For an order that used to cost €900, it has now risen to something ridiculous like €5,000. 

If you’re wanting a traditional British Christmas fare in Spain this year, you’ll have to buy your products early,” Barker warned. 

Will marmite become harder to find in Spain? Photo: Esme Fox

Has this affected other costs too?

“Yes, everything is now more expensive. Transport costs have risen by £100 and we also need to pay 5 percent of the costs of goods on top of that. In addition, we are forced to pay extra for heat-treated palettes to be allowed into the EU.

Imagine that on your tin of corned beef you’re having to add all those extra costs, that’s going to be a very expensive can of beef.

Although not to do with Brexit, electricity prices have also gone sky high here in Spain and we are now getting bills of around €1,000 per month per shop.”

READ ALSO: Why is electricity in Spain more expensive than ever?

“People just don’t realise all the extra costs that are involved. They tell me ‘oh I can get a can of baked beans in the UK for 80p, why are you selling it for more?’ They have no idea how much it actually costs to get that can of beans here. In the UK there is only VAT to pay on luxury food items, but here in Spain, we have to pay VAT on all food products too.”

Are you able to source alternatives such as from Ireland for example? Is this easier? 

“Most of our products are English and that’s what our customers want, so we can’t always source alternatives from Ireland. However, the transport is cheaper direct from Ireland, but we still have to pay import duties and VAT if we source products from there, so it doesn’t make it a lot cheaper.”

Are you having to raise your prices as a result?

“Up until now, we haven’t put up our prices, but soon everyone will be putting prices up and we won’t have a choice.

We also supply supermarkets all over Spain and some in Portugal. We will be able to survive this, but I know a lot of other British supermarkets in Spain are already in trouble and are having to close down due to rising costs and difficulty sourcing products.”

What are your most popular products that you fear may be affected or are already being affected by this? 

“The product which we’re seeing being affected the most right now is clotted cream. We sell our clotted cream to hotels in Spain too, and even though we buy it from a Spanish supplier, they are having trouble now sourcing it from the UK.” 

What do you see the future of British food exports being in Spain?

“Well, many of the shelves in the UK are empty now and our shelves are full. At the moment, we have a fantastic stock and have cornered the market on marmite, so hopefully we will be ok, but I don’t know what will happen with British exports in the future,” she concluded. 

READ ALSO: Brexit news roundup: All the latest info for Brits in Spain

Member comments

  1. If you’re paying import duty and VAT (that can’t be reclaimed) on food brought in from Ireland – another EU country – you’re doing it wrong. Our local Overseas Supermarket branch has taken on several great Irish brands to help fill the holes – small-minded customers that won’t accept those are likely what got the UK into this mess in the first place.

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BRITONS IN SPAIN

FACT CHECK: Spain’s ‘£97 daily rule’ isn’t new nor a worry for British tourists

The British tabloids are at it again causing alarm over the so-called '£97 daily rule’ which Spain is apparently imposing on UK tourists, who in turn are threatening to ‘boycott’ the country. 

Published: 15 April 2024 14:28 CEST
Updated: 20 April 2024 07:22 CEST
FACT CHECK: Spain's '£97 daily rule' isn't new nor a worry for British tourists

American playwright Eugene O’Neill once said: “There is no present or future – only the past, happening over and over again – now”.

In 2022, The Local Spain wrote a fact-checking article titled ‘Are UK tourists in Spain really being asked to prove €100 a day?‘, in which we dispelled the claims made in the British press about Spain’s alleged new rules for UK holidaymakers.

Two years on in 2024, the same eye-catching headlines are resurfacing in Blighty: “’Anti-British? Holiday elsewhere!’ Britons fume as tourists in Spain warned they may be subject to additional rules” in GB News, or “’They would be begging us to come back’: Brits vow to ‘boycott Spain’ over new £97 daily rule” in LBC.

The return of this rabble-rousing ‘news’ in the UK has coincided with calls within Spain to change the existing mass tourism model that’s now more than ever having an impact on the country’s housing crisis.

Even though Spaniards behind the protests have not singled out any foreign nationals as potential culprits, the UK tabloids have unsurprisingly capitalised on this and run headlines such as “Costa del Sol turns on British tourists”.

READ MORE: Why does hatred of tourists in Spain appear to be on the rise?

What is the so-called ‘£97 daily rule’?

Yes, there is theoretically a ‘£97 a day rule’, but it is not a new rule, nor one that applies only to UK nationals specifically, and not even one that Spain alone has imposed (all Schengen countries set their financial means threshold).

As non-EU nationals who are not from a Schengen Area country either (the United Kingdom never was in Schengen), British tourists entering Spain could have certain requirements with which to comply if asked by Spanish border officials.

Such requirements include a valid passport, proof of a return ticket, documents proving their purpose of entry into Spain, limits on the amount of time they can spend in Spain (the 90 out of 180 days Schengen rule), proof of accommodation, a letter of invitation if staying with friends or family (another controversial subject in the British press when it emerged) and yes, proof of sufficient financial means for the trip.

Third-country nationals who want to enter Spain in 2024 may need to prove they have at least €113,40 per day (around £97), with a minimum of €972 (around £830) per person regardless of the intended duration of the stay. It is unclear whether this could also possibly apply to minors.

The amount of financial means to prove has increased slightly in 2024 as it is linked to Spain’s minimum wage, which has also risen. 

Financial means can be accredited by presenting cash, traveller’s checks, credit cards accompanied by a bank account statement, an up-to-date bank book or any other means that proves the amount available as credit on a card or bank account.

Have Britons been prevented from entering Spain for not having enough money?

There is no evidence that UK holidaymakers have been prevented from entering Spain after not being able to show they have £97 a day to cover their stay, nor any reports that they have been asked to show the financial means to cover their stay either. 

17.3 million UK tourists visited Spain in 2023; equal to roughly 47,400 a day. 

Even though British tourists have to stand in the non-EU queue at Spanish passport control, they do not require a visa to enter Spain and the sheer number of UK holidaymakers means that they’re usually streamlined through the process, having to only quickly show their passports.

The only occasional hiccups that have arisen post-Brexit have been at the land border between Gibraltar and Spain (issued that are likely to be resolved soon), and these weren’t related to demonstrating financial means. 

Therefore, the British press are regurgitating alarmist headlines that don’t reflect any truth, but rather pander to the ‘they need us more than we need them’ mantra that gets readers clicking. 

To sum up, there is a £97 a day rule, but it is not new, it has not affected any British tourists to date, and it is not specific to Spain alone to potentially require proof of economic means. 

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