Irish dairy products exporter Ornua has today, Wednesday, April 3, outlined that it has a six-month stockpile of cheddar in the UK to avoid short-term supply-chain issues in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Ornua CEO John Jordan today confirmed that the entity is holding stocks “over and above” what is normally held, but added that some of the stock is just being stored in a different location.

It was also outlined that warehouses all over the UK are “chock-a-block” as a result of the doubt over the supply chain in the event of a no-deal Brexit and other companies moving a stockpile to the UK.

Ornua exports 80,000t of cheddar cheese to the UK annually and the amount being held in the UK currently totals 40,000t.

Continuing, Jordan outlined: “If there is an upside, it’s that as our costs to get into the UK increase in a tariff scenario, [UK producers’] costs of exiting the UK will also increase.

The UK export cheddar cheese, so we have identified the markets that they export to and those routes to markets and believe we can capture a share of that volume today; but we chose not to.

He outlined that continental Europe is a part of this export market, as well as north Africa.

Concluding, the Ornua CEO explained: “We are choosing not to take that business today because we believe we can get better returns out of the UK as it stands.”