Kent farmers have called for certainty over Brexit after a warning from Environment Secretary Michael Gove that a no-deal scenario could lead to significant delays in transporting food to Europe.

He told the annual National Farmers Union conference that with no agreement on the UK's withdrawal so far, the need to carry out checks on all imports into the EU would lead to the "furring up the arteries of commerce".

He said with just six weeks to go "we face considerable uncertainty over future arrangements" and no-one should under-estimate how "difficult and damaging it would be for British farming" to exit without a deal.

Mr Gove said: "The requirement for checks will inevitably slow the processing of exports, and for every lorry that is delayed at Calais there is a knock-on effect for other haulage and the rapid turn-around of roll-on roll-off ferries.”

“We can expect, at least in the short term, that those delays in Calais will impede the loading of ferries, constricting supply routes back into Britain and furring up the arteries of commerce on which we all rely.

"That will only serve to increase transport costs for British exporters."

Toby Williams, Kent NFU chairman, said it was worrying that the necessary infrastructure in Calais did not appear to be ready.

"We need a deal and certainty over frictionless trade to get to the transition over the next two years so we can properly negotiate trade agreements," he told KentOnline.

"It is quite worrying and none of us have a crystal ball and it looks like it is going to go down to the wire.

"The Brexit situation could be quite catastrophic for our industry.

"If we ended up with a zero tariff rate under WTO that could effectively open the floodgates to food coming into the country from almost anywhere in the world which would obviously undermine our farmers and open the door to products grown to below our standards."

Mr Gove said EU policy as things stood was that all food imports would need to be checked.

"A huge proportion of our food exports to the EU currently go through Calais," he said.

"There are no Border Inspection Posts at Calais. None. The French authorities promise to invest in BIP capacity but with just six weeks to go we face considerable uncertainty over future arrangements.”

Mr Gove said there would be benefits from leaving the EU and highlighted the scheme that would allow seasonal migrant workers to continue to work for Kent’s fruit farms.

Mr Williams added that without a deal, there was a risk the scheme would not be implemented but Brexit had also raised a perception the UK would no longer be employing people from the EU and those that had thought of working on fruit farms may look elsewhere.

"It is only a pilot scheme for 2,500 people when you are looking at a sector requiring 60,000 or more seasonal workers," he said.

"We have a massive need in Kent for fruit pickers."