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Disturbed supplies, especially with fresh products: shelves in a "Marks & Spencer's" branch in Northern Ireland
Photo: Liam Mcburney / PA Wire / dpa
Northern Ireland's consumers are feeling the effects of Brexit: There are problems with supplies, especially with fresh products.
The Irish government has now said that Brexit is to blame.
The regulations after the Brexit implementation at the turn of the year would provide for a certain number of controls for goods coming from the rest of Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
And that brings disruption, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told ITV.
“The supermarket shelves were full before Christmas, and now there are some supply chain problems.
This is clearly a Brexit problem, "said the minister.
The UK government had been trying in the past few days to downplay supply chain problems.
There is even a grace period for imports from Great Britain until the end of March.
This is intended to reduce the bureaucratic effort for some goods - including supermarket products.
Freight forwarders are now warning in the "Irish Times": The north will face an "abyss" as soon as this Brexit "grace period" for imports from Great Britain ends.
"Northern Ireland will be worse off in April if we don't get some relief," Paul Jackson of McBurney Transport told the Irish Times.
Imports from the EU also slowed down
In fact, delays in UK ports combined with a slowdown in imports from the European continent in December have resulted in patchy grocery shelves.
At the end of last year, Great Britain completed Brexit and left the internal market and the customs union of the European Union.
Since then, a trade agreement has been in place that had been negotiated for months.
Great Britain had formally left the EU at the end of January 2020.
However, until December 31st there was still a transition phase with EU rules.
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