A farming union has highlighted how the 'disastrous' impacts of leaving the European Union, customs union and single market are 'already being felt'.
Speaking at the Welsh Assembly, the Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) said the impact will 'hit home more and more' over the coming weeks.
FUW President, Glyn Roberts told the Assembly: “Contracts will be lost, prices will be affected and Welsh businesses will suffer.”
He also highlighted the uncertainty in the food sector regarding possible changes, which he said would hit home in a little less than ten weeks time.
“The food served here today is from produce stamped with the oval EU ID and health marks we are all familiar with,” said Mr Roberts.
“With just weeks to go before Brexit, our eighteen or so Welsh abattoirs, and other producers, do not know what they will need to stamp their produce with for it to be legal here or elsewhere in just a few weeks’ time.
“Exporters packing and shipping products now do not know whether the health and export certificates that accompany those shipments will be legal when it arrives on the other side of the world in just a few weeks’ time.”
'Additional costs'
The union warned that companies reliant on EU supply chains have no experience of dealing with health and export certificates required for third countries - which the UK will become - to import into the EU.
Companies now only have just weeks to train and become familiar with rules relating to hundreds of different export destinations.
Mr Roberts added: “We do not know what tariff rates will be charged on imports from other countries after March, as the draft tariffs will not be published until the end of February and need to be approved by parliament - so deals with importers must be reached with no knowledge of the additional costs likely to be incurred at ports.
“And as Scottish agriculture minister Fergus Ewing pointed out in a letter last week to Michael Gove, setting tariffs too low risks opening the floodgates to cheap food produced to different standards and causing considerable harm to our farmers and food industry, while also giving away negotiating capital for future trade negotiations.”
'Nightmare scenario'
Mr Roberts warned that the implications for the Welsh sheep industry were particularly stark.
With tariffs, sheep farmers fear a “nightmare scenario”. For example, around a third of Wales’ lamb crop is exported each year, with 90% of that going to the EU.
“For Welsh lambs born now and over coming months, and other Welsh products destined for EU and other markets, the same obstacles apply: Those essential customers wishing to place orders for Welsh lamb do not know what tariffs or barriers will apply in ten weeks time,” he told the Welsh Assembly.
“Our competitors are already making the most, by gearing up their businesses to take over supply chains that UK companies have taken decades to build up.”
The FUW called for Article 50 to be withdrawn altogether - a move which would not require negotiation with the EU 27.
Earlier this month, the NFU said that many British farms will “struggle to survive” if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union with 'no deal'.
