Do you find it harder to get British products in your country?

22 comments

1. In Serbia you can find locally produced Cheddar and Worcestershire Sauce in almost every store. But it’s impossible to get hands on some products of British origin (probably too expensive, hard to import, and not enough demand). I absolutely miss toffee apple ciders I could easily buy in Moscow, before moving to Belgrade.

2. Since brexit, it’s been more difficult to get common foodstuffs in Ireland. It’s not uncommon to have gaps on shelves. To be clear- there’s plentiful food but if you’re looking for a specific product you could be out of luck for a few weeks. Stupid brexit.

3. There’s definitely a lot less here in Spain. Used to be able to but British milk & butter but now it’s all Irish.

4. I don’t think I’ve ever bought specific English food over here, so I don’t have a problem with it being harder to get.

   Also I think English food isn’t really popular here

5. Genuine British products are harder to find, but Irish and Polish knockoffs have taken their place.

6. I lived in Paris until the end of 2022 and there used to be a few branches of M&S that would sell things like cheddar, chocolate digestives, halloumi and stir-fry mixes that were hard to get elsewhere in France. They all became deserted when Brexit happened.

   Thankfully I was lucky enough to be able to get good cheddar at my local Monoprix, but that’s not universal by any means

7. Never bought British food, but other British products have been difficult to get.
   I used to buy pencils and other drawing materials on British websites because I really liked the products.

   Now I avoid them, to much hassle to import them.
   I switched over to other EU alternatives, no regrets to be honest.

8. Since Brexit , the cheddar at my local Aldi has a big Irish flag on it.

   And that’s about all the typical British products I’ve bought in the last 10 years.

9. The only British product you can find in my home is a Dyson vacuum I bought before Brexit was implemented.

   I really do no see under which circumstance I could voluntarily buy British food, TBH.

10. Since Brexit? Yes. Or at least its more bothersome and expensive.

11. Im British and live in Germany , Marmite is hard to find and costs 3 x more. The bacon here is rubbish and the selection of meat generally is quite limited. I can only find normal tea bags in Chinese supermarkets. Cheddar is overpriced and just mild and boring , finding a decent one is much more difficult. Baked beans are expensive, Ive never found Lucozade, clotted cream, English mustard, Most people around the world have a pretty outdated view of British food so there is not much demand for it but even my German family agree British sausages are much better than what you can commonly find here.

12. I’ve not been looking out for this, but I don’t think so. I do have to go to one particular shop to get orange cheddar, but I don’t even know if that is British.

    Cathedral cheddar cheese is for sale here, for sure.

    In terms of the other British products I buy routinely (HP sauce and Marmite) those seem to be in every grocery store. And those aren’t locally produced because… well, because the British have made good versions, why bother making a counterfeits?

13. Not particularly no. We see a lot of British products in the supermarkets here and there are specialist retailers online for whatever else people might miss (though meat products now come from Ireland).

14. Not necessarily harder in general but now I avoid it. I used to get a ton of things off of eBay (especially books for uni and UK specific DVDs and NFL merch). And I love chocolate oranges, so I got these. But now I don’t anymore. Duty fees are terrible and things have gotten lost or stuck forever. I still remember when I ordered a bluray of Kiss me Kate and I was waiting 17 (!) weeks for it to arrive. It got lost twice, then stuck on import with no notification and I had payed for import beforehand and they wanted me to do it twice. Terrible.

15. Not sure I’ve ever seen British food brands for sale here tbh. I’m pretty sure we’ve got Cheddar and Worcestershire sauce, but it’s almost certainly made locally. There might be actual British food in premium-class stores, though.

16. TBH in Spain it’s been fantastic.. as an Irish person the lack of British products didn’t really register… other people were complaining..then the local British supermarket.. which I never went to… suddenly started stocking those amazing sausages which only Irish people know about and the special butter from a county West of cork..and yep we are happy out 😁

17. Absolutely. I bought console games, most of my books, and nearly all my audio and video (I prefer having them on media) in the UK before Brexit – usually one order every month. Stopped buying at all there after Brexit.

18. Worcestershire Sauce actually isn’t that hard to come by, as supermarkets have their own. It’s just called “English Sauce” here.

    But it depends on what products you mean. I don’t think there’s been that much of a change in what’s available. There are at least two British supermarkets in my region and they still sell the same products, though I believe they’ve increased the price.

19. I’m British and live in Germany. I’ve noticed an increase in Irish products but British products were never that big to begin with.

20. Cheddar, brown sauce, Worcester sauce, twinings tea area all available. Lidl sometimes has boxes of English beer (“English classic ales” it’s called) but it’s that samey Marston’s stuff.

    As far as I’m concerned there’s not much of a difference compared to pre-brexit times.

    I only miss sarson’s malt vinegar but it hadn’t been available before Brexit either, so no change here.

21. I haven’t noticed anything specific in any actual shops. But I probably don’t regularly buy any British products to begin with. It does affect ordering things online. But that’s not necessarily about where the product is actually made, but where it is stored or sold from.

22. To be honest, with the rise of Aldi and Lidl, many Englist products have made way for equivilant or better quality products, usuall at a lower price for elsewhere in Europe.

    Brexit accelerated that process a little.