Brexit checks on fresh farm produce coming to the UK from the EU have been delayed for the fifth time, according to reports.
The decision to suspend plans to enforce the controls, which have been applied in the other direction to British exports to the EU since January 2021, is due to be announced imminently, according to the Financial Times.
The delay is intended to give the government and exporters in the EU more time to prepare for the checks, setting Rishi Sunak on a collision course with domestic UK food producers who have long argued that it gives a free pass to continental rivals while they have to endure checks on all fresh food exports to the bloc.
According to reports, there are concerns the extra red tape would increase the cost of food imports to consumers and fuel further inflation.
The decision comes just days after the government abandoned plans to force manufacturers to label their products with an alternative to the EU’s CE (Conformité Européenne) safety mark.
Industry representatives welcomed the delay.
“The government has made the right decision to postpone. UK food retailers, hospitality businesses and consumers were in line for major disruption because many EU food-producing businesses supplying into the UK are not ready for the new requirements,” said Shane Brennan, the chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation.
He was concerned that EU producers, some of whom are small producers of specialist products such as cheese, were not even aware of the new requirements that could also have led to shortages on shelves.
Another industry source said it was a “Treasury purge” of all changes that would cause disruption to the supply chain, given the sensitivity of the food market to price increases in the current economic climate.
Before Brexit, exporters could send chilled and fresh food to the EU without any paperwork because the UK was a member of the single market.
Since the UK’s departure from the EU, fresh and chilled foods such as sausages or cheese, along with animal and plant products including timber and leather, are subject to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks and can only be exported with a health or veterinary certificate.
Exporters from the EU have not had to endure the paperwork after the British government failed to build new SPS systems or secure land for SPS parks to conduct random physical checks.
The Brexit cliff-edge in 2021 left British exporters of fish and other fresh goods in chaos with a lack of customs agents and veterinary staff to certify whether the produce complied with EU standards.
But in the UK Brexit checks were pushed back in 2020, on two occasions in 2021 and then again last year by the then Brexit opportunities minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg.
In April the government announced the checks would finally be phased in from 31 October, with further checks implemented in 2023 and 2024.
The checks in October were to involve paperwork known as “pre-certification” that would alert authorities to the arrival of food products with public health compliance requirements.
It is expected these checks will now be pushed back to the end of January when the physical SPS checks are due to become operational.
Government insiders told the FT that further details of the rules applying to food imports would be published “very soon” but the introduction would be pushed back.
“The driving force behind this is the need to bear down on inflation, that’s why there will be a delay. There will be additional costs at the border,” the FT said, quoting its sources.
A cabinet office spokesperson said it was reflecting on “valuable feedback provided by a range of businesses and industry stakeholders” and would be publishing more details of the border operating model shortly.
It said it was best to “progressively” introduce the checks.
