The National Farmers’ Union of Scotland (NFUS) has called on the government to address its “long-running failure” to introduce post-Brexit border controls on meat entering the UK.
The union said today (Thursday, January 12) that the lack of border controls leaves farmers and crofters exposed to the introduction of “devastating animal diseases such as African Swine Fever (ASF)”.
Chair of NFUS’ pigs committee, Jamie Wyllie (pictured top), has called for the government to guarantee the introduction of a robust, reliable system that will deliver border checks on food, with additional measures to verify the health and safety of meat products in a year’s time.
“Since the UK left the EU, Westminster has had wholly inadequate border controls in place for checking meat and other products entering our country,” Wyllie said.
“Amongst all the chaos of securing a ‘Brexit deal’ the mechanics of how border controls would operate was lost with no thought given to having the infrastructure and staff in place to manage controls when the split finally happened.
“A system has been promised but the deadline for when the system would be available has been repeatedly pushed back by the UK government.
“Announcements in July 2022 revealed a system would not be in place for January 2023, as required in legislation, instead the legislation was re-written to make room for this latest delay.
“The new legislative timeline requires an operational system to be in place by the end of January 2024, a significant delay from the January 2021 date.”
Livestock diseases
Wyllie warned that the longer there is no system in place, the greater the distortion of the market for UK producers, with importers to the UK facing less bureaucracy than those looking to export meat from the UK to EU.
As well as this, he said, the borders are also left unprotected against the introduction against livestock diseases, like ASF, into the UK herds and flocks.
“Whilst the delays in UK government introducing border controls remain hugely frustrating for the industry, we hope they mean there will ultimately be a ‘fit for purpose’ system, when it does come into play,” he said.
“The last thing the industry wants is a poor system brought in just to meet a strict deadline.
“We need reassurance from the UK government now that a realistic plan is in place, giving the development of the new system the focus and resources it needs to deliver an effective system without further delays.”
