The British meat sector is alarmed by the impact of Brexit three months after the effective exit of the EU by the United Kingdom, denouncing the "
systemic weakness of the current export system, a mountain of formalities and the loss potential of 20 to 50% of exchanges
”.
Read also: Brexit: record drop in trade between the EU and the United Kingdom in January
In a report released Thursday, the British Meat Producers Association puts the additional cost of Brexit at between £ 90 million and £ 120 million per year for the sector.
Administrative and customs complications
She notes that administrative complications sometimes increase by three days the time needed to get the green light from European authorities to export, which "
reduces the shelf life and the value of the meat
".
The report also describes “
the cost of customs declarations, customs agents, freight forwarders, additional veterinary inspections
” that are mandatory since the UK became a third country for the EU.
All of this makes “
some exports unviable
” not to mention “
higher insurance costs for loads, staff who have to take care of these formalities
”, and so on.
Other sectors concerned
Problems also denounced by other sectors of activity which describe the sudden impact of Brexit on their trade with the EU, despite the free trade agreement signed just before Christmas between London and Brussels.
Scottish salmon farmers, for example, at the end of February estimated their losses at already 11 million pounds, some companies having already announced that they were shutting down.
According to the association of British manufacturing companies Make UK, more than a third of their members said in early March that they had lost sales since January 1.
All of this translates into “
cancellations of customer orders in the European Union due to fears of additional costs and increased delivery times
”.
Problems setting up?
“
The barriers to exports that we now face are now fully apparent and will not go away.
We need the government urgently to resume discussions with the sector and the EU to find detailed and lasting solutions
, ”urges Nick Allen, the association's general manager.
The British government has so far played down these problems, describing them as linked to the implementation of the new system and doomed to disappear quickly.
"
To qualify the disturbances at the border as simple + problems of installation + short-term is no longer credible
", concludes for its part the association.
