The coalition of the United Kingdom has called for an agreement with Europe regarding the post-Brexit regulations for food.
The Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Certification working group, which comprises food, pet food, feed, and trade associations, concluded an urgent need for a vet accord with the EU to lessen the costs of certification and administration.
Organizations have also suggested that paper systems be digitalized. They are confident that post-border control will accept it within EU member states and Northern Ireland.
They estimated that the new Export Health Certificate (EHC) requirements have cost at most PS60 million ($80.5 million) in documents in less than a year in the case of 288,000 EHC applications that require five80,000 hours of certifier time. The data provided by the Animal and Plant Health Agency has shown that food-related EHCs rose from 22990 in 2020 to 288,558 in 2021.
Export costs and a shortage of vets
The chair of the group’s working committee, Karin Goodburn, director of the Chilled Food Association, said that the situation would continue to worsen if nothing is done and there aren’t any immediate solutions.
“As an example, it can take over five years to train vets we require to get the EHCs certified. These shocking figures represent an underestimation of the overall cost to the industry since they do not include the bulk order of EHCs that the Animal and Plant Health Agency which are placed in one order, and the larger costs associated with Brexit the SPS regulations,” she said.
The sector within the UK is already stretched. Statistics given by the Regal College of Professional Surgeons indicate that the number of registered vets who work in the UK decreased from 1,132 in 2019 down to 364 by 2021. Fewer EU vets are working within the UK have reduced by two-thirds.
This has caused a shortage of personnel to sign off on the documents needed for exports to the EU and other parts of the world, as per the group.
Kate Thompson, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) director for Wales, explained that there are limits on the EHCs that health professionals may issue from the environment.
“We would prefer to see an SPS/veterinary treaty with the EU that would assist in reducing the burdens and assisting in the promotion of commerce,” she said. “These tensions will get more intense when the import checks are implemented in July. In both the UK and Ireland, the health professionals working in environmental health are extremely skilled and, along with vets, have the experience expertise, experience, and knowledge for this job.”
According to members of the group, foods with short shelf lives are the most affected by the increase in demand. Due to the rising costs new costs, some food companies can not afford to export to the EU. That means that businesses have been unable to trade with what has been their most important export market.
Based on the Food and Drink Federation, UK exports of these items fell by PS2.7 billion ($3.6 billion) in the initial third quarter of 2021, compared to the pre-pandemic level. This includes a decrease in exports in EU members of EU by PS2.4 billion ($3.2 billion), likely due to new trade barriers and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UK was starting checks soon.
There are more demands for composite food products, such as at abattoirs and abattoirs. According to the organizations, there are also new technology and software systems and employees who require training in new techniques.
Richard Griffiths, British Poultry Council chief executive, has said members face problems every day.
“Government has repeatedly stated their belief that Trade and Cooperation Agreement allows British firms to trade in a free manner with the EU; however, this does not reflect the impact that trades with third-country countries. From shortages of vets to long queues of miles at Dover to the risk of trading with bird flu, it’s obvious that the current system was not intended for third-country countries to trade in their EU freely,” he said.
The coalition also demanded assurances for traders regarding the implementation of veterinary checks by the UK in July and November to ensure an equal playing field between the UK and the EU in terms of imports and exports.
Complete checks of imports of food products, livestock and animal products imported from the EU will be in force from July 2022 after being delayed four times.
