RESILIENCE OF THE FOOD SUPPLY TO PORT FLOODING ON EAST COAST DEFRA PROJECT FO0454 Sub-Annex 1: Establishing the ports of entry for UK Food commodity imports DECEMBER 2015 Peter Baker (PRB Associates Limited) 1 1. Establishing the ports of entry for UK Food commodity imports Food commodities, for the purposes of this overview of UK trade flows, identified at the 2-digit SITC level (Standard International Trade Classification) are described as follows: 01 - Meat & meat preparations 02 – Dairy products & birds eggs 03 – Fish, crustaceans, molluscs 04 – Cereals & cereal preparations 05 – Vegetables & fruit 06 – Sugar, sugar preparations & honey 07 – Coffee, tea, cocoa 08 – Feeding stuff for animals (not including un-milled cereals) 09 – Miscellaneous edible products & preparations 11 – Beverages 22 – Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits 41 - Animal oils & fats 42 – Fixed vegetable fats & oils; crude, refined, fractionated 43 - Animal or vegetable fats & oils, processed & waxes The analysis to establish the volumes of non-EU food commodity imports by UK port and to estimate the amount of EU food commodity imports by UK port has been carried out at the 3-digit SITC level. Analysis of the UKTI’s trade database confirms that in 2013 the UK’s international imports of food commodities amounted to 39.4 million tonnes (see Table 1 below). Table 1: UK Food Commodity Imports and Exports, 2013 (millions tonnes) Trade flow EU Non-EU Total UK imports 26.2 13.2 39.4 UK exports 9.7 3.2 12.9 Total 35.9 16.4 52.3 The vast majority of this international trade is transported by ship (dry bulk, liquid bulk, RoRo ferry and container vessels) and is handled through UK ports, but food commodities could also arrive in the UK via rail transit through the Channel Tunnel (Freight Shuttle and international intermodal through freight trains) and as air cargo (for some high value, short shelf life commodities). In context the total volume of ‘inwards’ traffic (international, domestic and coastal) through the UK’s major ports in 2013, from the Department for Transport’s Provisional Quarterly Maritime Statistics, is reported to be 317.7 million tonnes. The UK’s Food commodity imports therefore comprise approximately 12% of total ‘inwards’ traffic through UK ports, by volume. 2 Table 2: UK Food Imports, by Commodity (tonnes) Foodtype EU Non-EU Total Meat & meat preparations 1,704,090 383,369 2,087,459 Dairy products & birds eggs 1,502,347 10,132 1,512,479 Fish, crustaceans, molluscs 239,016 500,010 739,026 Cereals & cereal preparations 5,669,083 1,680,122 7,349,205 Vegetables & fruit 6,876,796 3,461,092 10,337,888 Sugar, sugar preparations & honey 1,195,606 1,429,626 2,625,232 Coffee, tea, cocoa 523,203 445,109 968,312 Feeding stuff for animals 2,741,774 2,898,560 5,640,334 Miscellaneous edible products & preparations 1,345,965 199,333 1,545,298 Beverages 3,193,250 871,011 4,064,261 Oil seeds & oleaginous fruits 270,668 748,520 1,019,188 Animal oils & fats 69,228 14,121 83,349 Fixed vegetable fats & oils 661,781 486,819 1,148,600 Animal or vegetable fats & oils 212,150 84,374 296,524 TOTAL 26,204,957 13,212,198 39,417,155 Vegetables and fruit imports, mostly transported by unit load mode (trailers and containers) make up 26% of UK food imports, while Cereals & cereal preparations (19%) and Feeding stuff for animals (14%) the next two largest import commodity groups will generally arrive in the UK in dry bulk vessels. 2. Imports from non-EU country origins UK trade with non-EU countries is documented, by consignment, according to HMRC requirements and as a result import volumes and values can be broken down according to a range of parameters. Most important for this exercise is the identification, for each detailed commodity classification, of the country of origin and the UK port of entry (clearance). Therefore, through analysis of the UKTI database it is possible to identify the volume of UK food imports, by commodity type and by UK port of entry. Detailed spreadsheets have been produced and are provided to show the volume of different food commodities imported through individual UK ports (at 3-digit SITC code level), with matrix tables summarising imports by port at the 3-digit and 2-digit SITC code level. (See Excel spreadsheet: UK non-EU food commodity imports and exports by Port.) Analysis of the data shows that out of the total volume of 13.2 million tonnes of food imports into the UK from non-EU sources 12.9 million tonnes (97.3%) enter the UK through the UK’s major ports, as defined in Table 3, below. The remaining import volumes arriving in the UK are deemed to arrive either by air, through an inland clearance depot, or through a smaller UK port, according to the customs clearance point. Just 32 of the UK’s major ports currently handle food imports from non-EU sources. The most significant ports of entry are London (22.6%), Liverpool (21.2%), Felixstowe (17.6%) and Belfast (10.0%). In summary, UK food imports in 2013, recorded as being from non-EU origins, arriving through UK ports, amount to the following, by port: 3 Table 3: UK Food commodity imports from non-EU origins UK Port Food imports (tonnes) % share Aberdeen 9,751 0.1% Belfast 1,288,850 10.0% Bristol 717,489 5.6% Cardiff 299 0.0% Clyde 25,322 0.2% Cromarty Firth 18,025 0.1% Dover 284,011 2.2% Dundee 16,884 0.1% Felixstowe 2,267,441 17.6% Forth 58,062 0.5% Goole 4,115 0.0% Grimsby & Immingham 603,886 4.7% Harwich 542 0.0% Hull 321,905 2.5% Ipswich 31,642 0.2% Liverpool 2,726,508 21.2% London 2,904,641 22.6% Manchester 17 0.0% Medway 45,785 0.4% Milford Haven 8,489 0.1% Newport 75,307 0.6% Orkney 6,831 0.1% Peterhead 4,929 0.0% Plymouth 16,242 0.1% Poole 10 0.0% Portsmouth 589,543 4.6% Ramsgate 485 0.0% Southampton 461,833 3.6% Sunderland 7,359 0.1% Tees & Hartlepool 50,094 0.4% Thamesport 281,167 2.2% Tyne 34,043 0.3% TOTAL 12,861,508 100.0% 3. Imports from EU countries There is no indication of the UK port of entry on the limited documentation generated for the movement of goods, including food commodities, between EU countries. The documentation does enable the evaluation of the value and volume of trade movements between EU countries, identified at a detailed commodity code level, but it is only possible to estimate the overall and specific volumes of food commodities passing through individual UK ports. A very small volume of food commodity imports from EU sources will be transported by air, but for the purposes of this exercise, where there is very little recorded detail of the UK port of entry for specific food commodity types arriving from EU countries of origin, it is assumed that all imports arrive either by sea, through a port, or by rail, through the Channel Tunnel. For this assignment the UK port of entry for Food commodities arriving from EU country origins is determined by using a range of factors, based upon the likely shipping mode used (dry bulk, liquid bulk, RoRo trailer, container), the EU country of origin and the known locations and capacity concentrations of 4 Short Sea RoRo and container shipping service connections between UK ports and the rest of the EU, including Ireland. The five types of import for which different ‘determinants’ are used to estimate the UK port of entry for food commodity imports from EU sources, as described and explained below, are: - Dry bulk - Liquid bulk - Imports from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Ireland - Unit load (accompanied trailer) and - Unit load (unaccompanied trailer and container) Total Food Commodity imports from EU – 26.2m tonnes Liquid bulk Sweden, Accompanied Unaccompanied Dry bulk 7.0m assumed to be Denmark, trailer traffic – trailers and tonnes – moved by road Finland and 12.0m tonnes; containers – Cereals and tanker or tank Ireland – 2.8m Frsh produce, 4.4m tonnes; all animal feed container tonnes meat, fish and other traffic dairy beveragesa Split between Non-bulk traffic Spread Spread ports according Spread between assumed to according to UK according to UK to spread in DfT ports according move on direct unaccompanied ferry Maritime to following unit load trailer capacity accompanied Statistics for three methods services to and short sea trailer capacity Agricultural identified UK container Products ports service capacity Flow chart: Summary method/logic for allocating EU food imports into the UK to appropriate ports Dry Bulk For food commodities imported in dry bulk mode from EU countries the Department for Transport’s Maritime Statistics does provide some indication for the UK port of entry. ‘Agricultural Products’(including animal feedstuff), classed as a dry bulk commodity, are identified separately in the Maritime Statistics and it is possible to evaluate the relative share of this type of traffic, coming from EU port origins, passing through individual UK ports (in 2012). The share of the 4.1 million tonnes of inbound Agricultural Product handled through UK ports in 2012 coming from EU sources (excluding coastwise and domestic) is summarised in Table 4 below. Taking this data and the derived percentage shares, per port, from the Department for Transport’s Maritime Statistics provides a measure for the relative amounts of UK imports of food commodities shipped in dry bulk form from EU countries, passing through individual ports.