Leading industry body warns of Brexit food supply disruption for UK

A leading industry has warned of food supply disruption that is set to hit the UK due to Brexit restrictions.

A leading industry has warned of food supply disruption that is set to hit the UK in the new year due to Brexit restrictions.

The British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) said that new border controls on EU plant and animal products could cause major delays at ports in the New Year.

New rules that come into place on January 1 state that importers have to make a full customs declaration for goods coming into the UK from the EU or other countries.

In a measure that was introduced to cope with the disruption of Brexit, traders will no longer be able to delay the completion of full import customs declarations for up to 175 days.

BFFF chief executive Richard Harrow said: “Whilst the new UK rules will be introduced in stages, we are concerned that not enough planning has been done to ensure the new requirements are understood by everyone in the food supply chain.”

“A good example of this is a new HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs) process called Goods Vehicle Management System (GVMS).”

“The system is designed to enable HMRC to keep a track of loads containing meat and plant products in fast-moving roll-on-roll-off ports such as Dover.”

“The system requires haulage companies to pre-lodge the arrival of a load to the UK before it departs from the EU port of embarkation.”

“Whilst many UK hauliers are well-prepared for this change, we suspect many EU hauliers are not.”

He added: “Whilst the UK authorities have said they will not stop vehicles that do not complete all the documents correctly, this assumes the EU port will allow a vehicle without the correct paperwork to leave port.”

The UK imports five times the amount of food it exports to the EU, so the potential for huge delays and food supply issues in January is very high.

Mr Harrow added: “We are still finding new elements of the process that our members are unaware of, or lack of clarity on what they need to do to comply with the regulations.

“With only days to go before the new rules, we remain concerned that January could be a fraught month for our members.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.