The British peer and former owner of NZ meat processing plants under the name of Weddell until the 1990s was speaking at the opening of the Royal Easter Show in Auckland.
He was chairman of the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth and a regular visitor to major shows in NZ.
Now aged 76, Vestey also lived in NZ in the mid-1960s and was a management trainee at Weddell works such as Tomoana, Westfield, Gisborne and Patea, now all closed.
In preparation for his Auckland visit he was briefed at NZ House in London and talked to friends and acquaintances in Westminster.
Brexit was by no means a done deal and as British Prime Minister Theresa May said “No deal is better than a bad deal”.
British voters had some considerable shocks coming, including the EU/UK “divorce settlement”, which might devalue the pound.
“Moreover, I cannot see how Britain could continue to pay its farmers the large EU-type grants and subsidies, much of them to rich farmers.
“UK farmers are going to have to learn from how NZ farmers survive without subsidies.
“NZ will have to wait at least two years before it can make a new trade deal with the UK and there will be push-back from Welsh lamb producers, for example.
“Another general election is due six months after the planned settlement of Brexit and if the public thinks the UK has been shafted then they will take it out on the ruling Conservatives.”
Vestey thought Britain’s sheep meat exports to France might be disrupted, which would then rebound on the UK demand for NZ lamb.
The family company, Vestey Foods, of which he was chairman and his nephew George was managing director, imported and sold meat, seafood, dairy, fruit and vegetables to high-end customers, mainly hotels and restaurants.
It traded the highly regarded NZ lamb, beef and dairy products.
The founders, William and Edmund, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries built a vertically integrated meat business from farms in Australia, NZ and Latin America, processing plants, the Blue Star shipping line and the Dewhurst chain of meat shops in Britain.
At its height it was called the largest privately owned conglomerate in the world.
The processing investments were under the names of Weddell in NZ, William Angliss in Australia and Frigorifico Anglo in Brazil.
Fourth generation Lord Vestey said the family no longer owned any offshore processing assets, only beef cattle and sugar cane farms in Brazil and two wineries in Australia.
