London, UK: From today meat and dairy products, plants and seeds are among the goods subject to physical checks when imported to Britain from the European Union. Health certificates were introduced in January on EU goods ranging from cut flowers, to fresh produce including meat, fruit and vegetables, but on Tuesday, physical checks for the goods have come into force.
It is the second phase of border controls kicked in from midnight as part of the UK’s Brexit trade agreement. UK food producers including farmers have welcomed the checks as a way of maintaining food quality and supply. But businesses have warned the checks, which will see import costs increase immediately, are expected to hit smaller companies hardest and lead to price rises being passed on to customers for certain products.
The British Meat Processors Association said that with “so little clear explanation” of how the new import checks will be rolled out, it had been “very difficult to gauge the impact on meat supplies, even after four years of preparation”. It said it suspected that larger importers would not be adversely affected, but warned that smaller importers would be.
The new checks are not yet being applied to goods from the Republic of Ireland, a major supplier to Britain. The government says the checks on Irish goods will not happen before November. But businesses, especially smaller companies, have raised concerns that the new checks could disrupt supply chains and increase costs, with importers having to pay £29 per shipment of particular products.
The government has acknowledged that the extra red tape and checks will increase food prices, but not as much as seen in recent times. It has forecast the controls could push up inflation by 0.2 percentage points over three years.
The Cold Chain Federation says government estimates are low, and puts the cost in billions. “We think there’s going to be a billion pound’s worth of extra cost put onto food coming through Dover port alone, if you expand that to the rest of the country you’re looking at all sorts of money, so it won’t be 0.2%, it will be substantially more than that and the consumer will see that increase,” chief executive Phil Pluck said.
“Restaurants, delicatessens, fish and chip shops could well be affected by what’s currently happening today and the consumer, in the very near future will start to see some of those food products going up in price.”
