Realignment with EU food rules would cause ‘some pain’

A sheep industry leader has warned total harmonisation with EU food rules as part of a future sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal would cause “some pain” for exporters of animal products.

Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, said Great Britain (GB) had diverged from EU rules in a number of areas in the years since Brexit, and this was a trend that looked set to continue in future.

See also: UK-EU deal to ease red tape on agricultural exports

He pointed to the example of lead thresholds in edible livers, which were reduced by the EU from 0.50mg/kg to 0.20mg/kg in 2021.

The UK’s limit remains 0.50mg/kg.

“This has meant we’ve had full loads of livers rejected that would be exported to Europe,” he said.

“Processors are catering to that by only sending younger lamb livers over, before lead levels build up, but if through SPS alignment we were forced to meet these new thresholds, a high proportion of our offal would exceed them and that would create some real problems.

“We’ve said all along we’d like to see closer alignment, but there are going to be some winners and losers.”

Mr Stocker also said he did not feel Defra had properly consulted industry on the SPS deal, for which talks are ongoing, because officials believed industry wanted total realignment.

“There’s no close engagement with industry over this,” he said.

“It’s great to see more alignment, but we also need to track where divergence has occurred and I just don’t think anyone is doing that.”

Mr Stocker’s comments came as Defra announced a preliminary agreement had been reached with the EU, suspending the planned introduction of extra border checks on live animal imports from the EU and on specific animal and plant goods from Ireland.

Biosecurity risks

The department said the deal would save businesses time and money by cutting red tape, but industry bodies raised concerns about biosecurity risks.

In a statement, the National Pig Association (NPA) warned that failing to check pet or hobby pigs could leave UK livestock more exposed to imported disease such as African swine fever.

The NFU, meanwhile, noted that the preliminary deal did not allow live animals to be exported from GB to the EU for breeding purposes – a high-value trade that was lost post-Brexit.

Government response

A UK government spokesman said: “Following the UK-EU Summit we will be finalising the details of our SPS agreement, which will make trade with our biggest market cheaper and easier.

“We take the UK’s biosecurity very seriously, and we are investing £1bn in a new National Biosecurity Centre to boost our world leading facilities and protect our agricultural sector.

“We will continue to engage with farmers, food producers and businesses during these negotiations.”