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Small firms have said that preparing for Brexit is like preparing to "move your business to Narnia."

Industry representatives told the parliament's Brexit committee how small business, and consumers will be effected if they goods are delayed at the UK's borders.

Business leaders warned supermarkets shelves could be emptied of the most perishable goods and small businesses said they have effectively "tuned out" from Brexit talks as they simply don't know what to do.

One business leader said preparing for Brexit was like "trying to move your business to Narnia" as they have no idea of the regulatory system they will find themselves in.

Martin McTague, Policy and Advocacy chair of the Federation for Small Business said 86 per cent of small businesses have made absolutely no preparations at all in the event of "no deal".

"What we're most worried about is the lack of transition arrangement. When we've looked at groups of small businesses there has been progressively a tendency to tune out of the whole debate," he told the Exiting the European Union Committee.

"They don't know what to do. One guy put it to me quite well. He said it's like preparing a move of your business to Narnia. I don't know what this place is like, how do I make preparations for it?'."

Britain's trucking industry also voiced major concern as the vast majority of logistics companies don't have the necessary paperwork to survive a shock changeover.

Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association said: "As soon as we come out of the EU we forfeit our British licence which grants British hauliers access."

Hauliers' only contingency is the ECMT permit (from the European Conference of Ministers of Transport) - but these are "capped and quota-ed," he said. There are only 1,224 lorries carrying them, leaving almost 37,000 unlicensed to travel to the EU.

Supply chain firms made the stark warning a fortnight ago that a delay of even 30 minutes could make swathes of businesses bankrupt, as they missed deadlines to re-stock their customers.

Firms have a tight margin of £60 per lorry per week in profit, Mr Burnett added - so there is "no margin for error" if the industry was hit by the costs of more red tape.

Meanwhile supermarket shelves would feel the brunt of a "no-deal" - with the most perishable items being hit hardest, said Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium.

Cut flowers from Holland have the shortest shelf life in a supermarket, he said, followed by strawberries from Spain, which is only nine days - or three to four days by the time they get to the store.

"Supermarkets may reconsider whether to put products on the shelf if they are delayed by a single day," he said, adding that Irish beef and some specialised cheese products would be hit to a lesser degree.

"If you had to focus on one thing in a "no deal supermarket" it would be the fruit and veg aisle," he said.

Meanwhile, hospitals and pharmacies could see stocks rapidly deplete if the guidance on how much they should stockpile is wrong, warned Mike Thompson of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

Some 37 million packs of medicines is imported each month, he said, and our exports are even more substantial, at 45 million per month.

"Clearly there are very serious consequences if we are not able to deliver a medicine to a patient," Mr Thompson said.

The industry has been told that "in preparing for the stockpiling of medicine we should assume six weeks for the delays at the border," he said. "If that delay is wrong that could have serious consequences."