It's just after noon at Openshaw's New Smithfield Market and, after a typically early start, Mariella Gabbutt is finishing up for the day. But she's still got time to talk about an issue she says has 'decimated' her industry and the country.
"Brexit has been totally devastating for us," says Mariella, whose family have run wholesale fish and meat supplier J+B Wilde for more than 100 years. "The cost of everything we import has gone up by at least 25 per cent, minimum.
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"I have been doing this a long time and I have never known anything put so much pressure on the industry. Don't get me wrong, it's not just Brexit - we've also had Covid and this stupid war with Ukraine - but Brexit was the catalyst for it."
On Friday the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt outlined his plan to get Britain back on its feet, saying Brexit would be the 'catalyst' for the country's future economic growth. In a speech in central London the Chancellor added: "Our plan for growth is necessitated, energised and made possible by Brexit.
"We need to make Brexit a catalyst for the bold choices that will take advantage of the nimbleness and flexibilities that it makes possible."
But for Mariella that vision couldn't be further from the reality of what she is seeing day in an day out. "I have seen hundreds of restaurants come and go over the years, but I've never so many closing as are now," she said.
"We have had to pull credit, we've just stopped doing it, because we are terrified of businesses shutting down and leaving us out of pocket."
Mariella says the firm used to import clams and oysters from France around three or four times a week, but have stopped doing so because since Brexit the cost of each delivery has gone up by more than £100. Ducks, which she buys from France and Poland, have doubled in price.
In January last year Marielle says two truck loads of fresh fish from Turkey were sent back from the border because of a minor error in the paperwork. It meant around £200,000 of seafood went to waste.
To try and prevent a repeat of that, Mariella says J+B Wilde now employs someone to handle the documentation needed for each shipment. But at £65 per delivery, it's a massive cost to the business.
"It used to take a couple of weeks to get your order, now it's six to eight weeks," she said.
"We can't get lorry drivers, fruit pickers, restaurants can't get waiters, washer-uppers, the NHS has a massive shortage of nurses. Don't tell me that Brexit has not decimated this country.
"This country will not recover from Brexit for at least 25 years, so how can Jeremy Hunt say that? Brexit has not done anything good for anybody who imports into this country."
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