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Brexit checks on fruit and vegetables being imported from the EU are once again set to be delayed by the Government amid fears they could push up food prices.
The Government is looking to delay the controls until 1 July 2025 following warnings they could add to inflation, damage food supply and put companies out of business, according to a leaked ministerial letter seen by i.
The checks had been due to come into force next month, but were delayed until January, and have now been delayed again for another six months.
It is the first time the new Labour Government has delayed import checks that are a necessary consequence of the UK leaving the EU single market, and which were pushed back several times under the Conservatives amid fears of food price inflation and border chaos.
In 2022, the UK imported more than half its fruit and vegetables, nearly 80 per cent of them from the EU.
Failing to delay the checks would have added £200m to the fruit and veg industry’s annual costs which firms would have to pass on to the consumer, Fresh Produce Consortium chief executive Nigel Jenney warned last month.
Environment Minister Baroness Hayman confirmed in a letter to the industry, seen by i, that the Government is looking to “extend the easement” for fruit and vegetable imports from the EU to 1 July 2025 and would be launching a consultation on the issue shortly.
The industry said the delay would help companies prepare and ultimately minimise costs for them and consumers.
But some observers believe the situation highlighted the need for the Government to achieve its goal of an EU veterinary agreement to alleviate the need for many checks on food imports and exports.
Stella Creasy, chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, welcomed ministers’ attempts to “resolve the mess” left by the Conservatives, but said British people still face “paying the price of Tory hard Brexit through higher prices” unless the Government fulfils a promise to sign a veterinary deal.
The delay will add pressure on to Sir Keir Starmer to strike a ‘veterinary deal’ with the EU as part of his desired relationship reset which would allow easier fruit and vegetable imports as well as for meat and animal produce.
The government otherwise faces kicking the can down the road indefinitely or biting the bullet and accepting higher food prices, and a possible inflation uptick.
Any softer Brexit deal could be years in the making, however, posing a risk that checks will eventually have to be implemented, at great cost, only to be removed later.
Anand Menon, director of the UK In A Changing Europe think-tank, said Labour’s move to delay the controls showed that despite the change of Government and Sir Keir Starmer’s “reset” of EU relations, “Brexit raises some really tricky, practical problems and it will continue to do so under the Government’s red lines”.
Prof Menon also warned that the delay could damage the Prime Minister’s negotiating position on a veterinary deal as he seeks to carry out a Brexit “reset” and foster closer EU relations.
Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks on several types of EU food imports including meat, fish and dairy, were introduced from April 30 this year following years of delay by the Conservatives, and despite an admission by the former government last year the controls would add 0.2 per cent to food price inflation over three years.
But fruit and vegetables were exempted from much of the post-Brexit red tape until October this year, with the Tories later confirming it intended to push this further back to January 2025.
This exemption is now set to be extended to July 2025, Baroness Hayman’s letter confirmed.
She also said the Government was still reviewing proposals to allow authorised companies to carry out their own checks away from official facilities, and whether to downgrade several types of food imports from the “medium” to “low” risk category – including turnips, beetroot, carrot, ginger, sweet potato, turmeric, celeriac, swede, horseradish and radishes – meaning they would face fewer checks.
Reacting to the delay, Jenney told i on Thursday: “We are delighted that the new Government is listening and beginning to understand the concerns and needs of industry and UK consumers.
“Once we receive further clarity, the delay allows the industry to understand specifically what the Government is asking for, to manage with European partners in a timely manner, and it will minimise the confusion and ultimately minimise the cost to industry and the cost to consumers.”
“However, they have a long way to go to unpick the catastrophic mess the (Conservative) government placed our borders in.
Creasy welcomed the move but pointed out that cheese, meat, eggs, seeds and other foodstuffs were still caught up in the “bonkers” food imports regime.
“I absolutely welcome the Government trying to get to grips with the madness of the Brexit border tax and there is still much to do to resolve the mess that Tory hard Brexit has delivered.
“This should be the start of a process that tries to protect British consumers because this is inflationary.
“The Government should be looking at how quickly it can sign an SPS (veterinary deal) and rejoin the pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM) Convention (PEM) could happen.
“We absolutely welcome ministers trying to sort this mess out, we know there is more to do and in the meantime British consumers shouldn’t be paying the price of Tory hard Brexit through higher prices and food shortages.”
Prof Menon meanwhile warned that delaying the checks might help UK consumers, but it could damage ministers’ negotiating position with the EU as it tries to secure a veterinary agreement to alleviate many of the food-based checks.
“On the one hand, this spares us the potential of increased food prices and delays of imports of fresh food.
“On the other, as long as we haven’t implemented everything we should, it reduces the incentives for the European Union to negotiate any kind of amendments to the existing situation with us (i.e. a veterinary agreement).
“If the EU aren’t facing the full impact of checks, why would they sit down and negotiate? They’ve got a comparative advantage, they can export to us easier than we can export to them because they have already got all the checks in place.
“If the (UK) checks were in place, one of the things you could imagine is EU exporters putting pressure on their governments to do something about it.”
As long as Starmer maintains red lines that prohibit the UK from rejoining the EU, or its single market or customs union, Brexit-related problems like this would continue.
“The next set of problems might be about energy cooperation, or fish, or whatever, but there will always be these issues,” he said.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it would not comment on leaks.
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