There is still a place for Eastern European food businesses in a post-Brexit London

| Traditional Hungarian ingredients at Paprika Store in Twickenham

Eastern European food and hospitality businesses in London have remained resilient after Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic, but lingering challenges persist.

Opening The Lakehouse Hungarian Restaurant in the summer of 2019, Bernadette Bárczi and her brother Mihály have continued to welcome more international customers, including many Arabic, Turkish and Albanian, as well as Irish and English diners.

Bárczi explained that they took over from previous owners of the cafe who served halal food, cakes, and full English breakfasts, and that their restaurant was quite the "cultural change” for the local customers of Leytonstone in East London. But the siblings had anticipated the challenge, slowly increasing the number of Hungarian cuisines on the menu over the first year, to familiarise existing customers with the new flavours.

Since 2020, National Insurance numbers (NINos) issued for workers coming into the UK have been highest among African, Asian and Oceanic countries, according to Stat-Xplore figures. Whereas, numbers for European nationals have not returned to pre-Brexit and pandemic levels.

Furthermore, an Office for National Statistics (ONS) report estimates that 51,000 EU nationals left the UK in the year ending June 2022.

“We have about 30 percent Hungarian and 70 percent international guests coming regularly to the restaurant. Which is definitely because of Brexit,” said Bárczi, adding, "they planned to stay for another couple of years after Brexit, but [covid] was the big turnaround where people went home”.

The figures by Stat-Xplore show that the number of NINos granted to nationals from accession countries, including Poland – which once topped registrations - and Hungary, began declining following the EU referendum in 2016.

Polish Deli and Coffee Shop in Roehampton, Chatka Franka, have seen an increase in sales since they opened in 2020, with new customers soon becoming regulars as they return for fresh traditional cuisines and authentic ingredients.

Patrycja Palonek and her husband took over from the previous occupants, whose Polish store had succumbed to the financial strains brought on by Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic.

“Because of the new restrictions, you can buy cheaper in Tesco than we can from our supplier”, stressed Palonek. Their supplier now requires more time to register the deliveries and provide certificates for produce.

The staff have had to inform disappointed customers of delays and discontinuations of certain products due to a change in regulations. For instance, flour imports were affected by amendments made to composition requirements in the UK Bread and Flour Regulations in October last year.

With a customer base mostly split between Polish and English, Chatka Franka have had lots of Ukrainians visiting in the last year - coinciding with visa schemes during the Russian invasion.

But new concerns from the cost-of-living crisis, combined with existing uncertainties surrounding future settlement status’, mean that many nationals “are going back to Poland or moving to other countries”, said Palonek. This leads to challenges for many food business that rely of native-speaking staff.

“We are still looking for people,” she said, pointing to her colleague who is also considering leaving the UK.

Similarly, Hungarian grocery shop chain, Paprika Stores, has struggled to hire new staff since Brexit.

Figures by The Migration Observatory in 2022 show that there is a shortage of low-skilled workers, with 400,000 vacancies in retail, hospitality and social care, and illustrates that 21% of EU workers in the UK were in medium-low skill level jobs in 2004.

Owner Sabi Patai has had to employ someone to handle additional paperwork two days per week. “We have increased costs due to custom agent fees of approximately five hundred to six hundred per week,” he explained.

Despite the challenges brought on by Brexit, the Hungarian shop owner said that, “strangely, the business was booming during the pandemic”, and that they have come out stronger.

Around three quarters of the chain’s customer base is of Hungarian decent, according to Patai, with the rest mostly being Eastern European. Although, their Twickenham store receives a large portion of its business from locals.

Shop worker Dorka revealed that one of the most popular sales among locals at this location is alcohol, such as Palinka, but many visit in search of ingredients to remake dishes they have tried in Hungary. So much so that Dorka has printed a translated recipe for Goulash – a traditional Hungarian beef soup – to provide British customers.

Sabi Patai points out: “Brexit is still ongoing, as some custom rules will be only introduced early next year. Nobody know as of today what level of strictness will be introduced when it comes to food of animal origin. I hope it won’t be as bad as it looks, as it could affect thousands of businesses like us”.