British food shoppers will be left worse-off after Brexit, due to barriers to imports, according to former Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King.

Speaking on BBC’s Panorama programme, King stated that consumers will have to pay more for less choice, with poorer-quality food after the UK leaves the EU.

“Brexit – almost in whatever version it is – will introduce friction; it will introduce barriers. That makes it less efficient, which means all three of those benefits –price, quality, and choice – go backwards,” according to King.

Meanwhile, manufacturing boss and JML product-line founder John Mills said the opposite could happen, as the EU keeps food prices artificially high.

“Food prices, on average, are 20% higher than they are in the rest of the world, so there is very substantial scope for food prices coming down.

“The reason why food prices are higher inside the EU is because they have tariffs, which keep the prices up. It’s not anything to do with quality: it’s due to the institutional arrangements which means the food prices are kept much higher to increase farmers’ incomes,” explained Mills.

This is in stark contrast to NFUS vice-president Martin Kennedy, who believes that food prices are already too low and that farmers need a greater reward for their produce.

“Agriculture is facing crisis and unless farmers and crofters either receive much more for their products, or are supported to at least the current level, then the whole of the UK will be at the mercy of sub-standard products flooding our markets.

“The result of this would be that we no longer have the ability to feed our own country,” said Kennedy.