The government plan to cut costs and red tape on agriproducts such as dairy, fish, eggs and red meat has been welcomed by food businesses.
The new sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with the EU is expected to add £5.1bn to the economy each year and increase the volume of UK exports of major agricultural commodities to the EU by 16%.
Currently, British goods are subject to 100% documentary checks and up to 30% physical checks. The deal will see these removed entirely, which could save businesses up to £200 per shipment.
Minister for small businesses and exports Gareth Thomas told The Grocer this would have a “transformative impact”.
“One of the great frustrations with the deal the last government did, the trade and co-operation agreement, was they didn’t think through the implications,” he added. “This deal will be very significant in reducing some of the costs and then the challenge will be to try and help businesses regain their market share.”
It will also see most routine border checks on food and agricultural products moved between the UK and EU scrapped, which will allow for faster trade and lower costs.
The changes have been welcomed by the industry including Neal’s Yard Dairy, which has seen annual exports to the EU fall by 15%-20% compared with pre-Brexit.
“The additional requirements for export to the EU post-Brexit have cost our business in many ways,” said David Lockwood, director at Neal’s Yard Dairy. “A major impediment is the requirement that our EU-bound shipments have health certificates for cheese signed off by official veterinarians, This has doubled the time between customers ordering and receiving goods, a very effective cost inflater and sales killer.
“The removal of this non-tariff trade barrier is greatly anticipated.”
However, there are concerns from the sector that it is not happening fast enough. Lockwood explained that the deadline of the end of January 2027 was too late as it would impact another two Christmases for the business, its busiest time of year.
He told the minister that it was that second Christmas that made things really difficult.
When asked about concerns over timing, Thomas told The Grocer: “We obviously want to get the deal over the line as quickly as we can. Inevitably, when you’re putting together any sort of trade deal, you have to go through the detail, and that’s what we will now do.”
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