Businesses to pay to import food from the EU
In yet another post Brexit “benefit” from today (29 April 2024) businesses will have to pay for border checks on medium and high risk food.
The Government says that it will increase security and the cost will be negligible. Businesses say otherwise.
For example, live animals will be subject to identity and physical checks for pests and diseases as part of the high risk category. Medium risk to biosecurity will be checked and low risk goods e.g. canned food will not be checked.
Importers will have to pay £29 per shipment for some products.
If multiple types of items are being transported, businesses will be paying £29 per category – to a maximum of £145.
Some sectors will have to pay the maximum charge because they have multiple commodity lines per consignment, such as horticultural consignments which can include plants, seeds, bulbs and cut flowers.
The fee has been introduced to pay for border inspections and fund new facilities in Kent. The Government has admitted that this will cause inflation but they state that it’s “only £300 million over 0.2 per cent over three years”. Stella Creasy MP for Walthamstow said that independent analysis shows it will be ten times that, or £8 a month on the average food shop.’
The Government points to the outbreak of African Swine Fever which is widespread in some parts of the world including both EU and non-EU countries saying that this would be a ‘fundamental threat to the viability’ of the UK’s pig industry.
Free movement of goods has been allowed under the EU single market since 1993. These checks have been brought in as part of the Brexit agreement. Goods from Britain have faced EU controls since the beginning of 2021 when it left the bloc’s single market.
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The British Retail Consortium
Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said:
Retailers have been working closely with their suppliers to prepare for the implementation of physical checks on food imports. Major retailers and suppliers are well prepared for the new system of checks and we do not expect any significant disruption as a result.
“There are still many unknowns, how well prepared EU suppliers are, how the checks and delays could impact on supply, and this is why it’s so important for government to mitigate these and take a pragmatic approach to border controls to avoid excessive costs, just at a time when food inflation is returning to normal.”
The government forecasts that the checks will cost British businesses about £330m. A year. This will surely be mostly be passed onto consumers fuelling inflation?
There will also no doubt be delays at ports as time is taken getting to grips with the new systems as well as the inevitable teething problems. 01 May 2024 update government scaled back the number of inspections to avoid disruption yesterday.
Actual costs of food imports to companies
The Guardian in the article Food importers in UK say new Brexit checks could add 60% to costs reports:
importers and haulage companies have criticised the lack of clarity over what was meant by a “consignment”, with many assuming that the cap applied per lorry. In fact, vehicles with a wide variety of products from different locations could be forced to pay many multiples of £145.
Haulage companies carrying meat and dairy products from Poland and other eastern European countries said the new charges mean they will now have to pay hundreds of pounds for each lorry, adding significant costs to operations.
One of the biggest importers of eastern European goods to the UK, sending more than 70 lorries every week and supplying 1,000 businesses, said the government needed to be clearer on what a consignment meant and to alert companies that they were facing costs much higher than £145.
The company, which preferred not be named, said some of its trucks would now have to pay £1,500 (€1,750) extra to cover the costs, an increase of about 60% on the €3,000 it usually costs to transport goods to the UK.”
