Listen: How Brexit could affect world dairy prices

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Britain is in a state of uncertainty over Brexit amid growing fears that it may crash out of the EU without a deal on the future relationship.

Kevin Bellamy told The Country's Jamie Mackay, "I think there will be a deal, but I think it will go down to the wire."

Rabobank's global sector head for dairy spoke to The Country about the potential ramifications and logistics of Brexit for world dairy prices.

Bellamy says there are milk companies on either side of the Northern Ireland and Ireland border. As a result, there are concerns that Brexit could bring up some "sensitive" issues.

"With the potential for tariffs between the UK and the EU, the interruption of trade means going back to border posts and all the potential tensions around a North/South divide."

Listen below:

The UK is not self-sufficient in dairy and imports 16 per cent of it products each year says Bellamy, who concludes that "a lot of competition in the dairy industry's not so big in the UK in terms of its importance to Government."

However, Ireland has plenty of milk but a "really small population," which results in surplus product flowing on to the export market, which has the potential to cause problems for Irish dairy businesses.

"If all your tankers each day have to stop at a border posts and go through customs checks and pay import tariffs - that really interrupts those businesses."

This will result in export milk moving away from the UK and into the European market, says Bellamy.

It's not all bad news for British farmers though, as any increase in import costs will "create more headroom for their milk price at home," says Bellamy.

Not such good news from the rest of the world however, as any surplus milk exported from Ireland will flow onto the European market, which in turn will "spill over into the world market."

"It's not going to destroy the world market, but it is going to have a little bit of a negative effect on all of us outside of the UK unfortunately."