Tucked away in the Belgian countryside is the specialty supermarket Stonemanor. For nearly 40 years, it has been a go-to for UK expats craving a little taste of home.  

Walkers. McVitie's. Weetabix. The store is full of all the big British brands... or at least it used to be.  

"This rack has been bare for about three weeks now," said store manager Ryan Pearce as he walked by empty shelf after empty shelf.  

Ninety percent of his stock is depleted, he said, deliveries a victim of post-Brexit red tape and reams of new paperwork. Shelves are so bare, the shop was forced to temporarily close – a first since its doors opened in 1982. 

"We have never experienced anything like this," said Pearce, whose grandparents founded Stonemanor. "We're having to get 250 lots of paperwork, for example. And if one of them is wrong, it could jeopardize the whole consignment." 

Pearce blamed the disruption on the UK government, which he said did not give exporters enough information in the lead up to January 1, when the Brexit transition period ended.  

"They're saying businesses should be ready. If they are given the correct information, then why are so many businesses struggling?" questioned Pearce. 

The Road Haulage Association says there was a 68 percent drop in exports from Britain to the EU in January as businesses adjust to new checks at the border. The UK government has disputed the figure.  

As stockpiles dwindled, Pearce scrambled to find new suppliers within the EU customs union. 

Two weeks into February and the store received its first shipment of the year – sausages and bacon from a butcher in Ireland. Truck driver Cathal Martley said Stonemanor was just one stop along an expanding route that skirts the UK.  

"The run is getting busier every week, whereas last year maybe you'd have seven or eight deliveries. Now, we are up to 14," said Martley. 

But what's saved in paperwork is lost in price. Pearce says the shipment from Ireland was three times more expensive than a similar delivery from the UK. 

It was also a much smaller shipment. One pallet compared with 26, twice a week.

"It's not going to fill the shop, but it's going to fill some of the empty gaps while we work on getting new orders in from the UK again," said Pearce.  

At Stonemanor's other location outside Brussels, the shelves are just as bare.   

"Everybody's been asking the same questions over and over again. What's happening? Are you closing down?" said cashier Irene Timmons, who has worked at Stonemanor for 10 years. "We're doing our utmost to get stuff in and hopefully now, with the sausage and the bacon coming in, it's a start." 

The customers who do come, struggle to fill their carts. 

"Normally, I would buy more tea and my girls like maize and bagels," said Friebbert, who visits the shop three times a year to stock up on provisions for his wife and daughters. As he looked at the empty shelves, he said he wouldn't expect this modern-day Belgium. 

Pearce doesn't know when the stores will be back running at full capacity. For now, sausage and bacon offer a brief reprieve and a reminder of the way things used to be.