Holyrood warned over Brexit threat to Scottish farming

The UK Government might have termed the hold-ups caused by additional paperwork at ports and borders “teething problems” – but many of these caught up in the log-jams have viewed the problems as rating closer to root canal work – without anaesthetic.

James Withers gave evidence at Holyrood

And this week food and farming bodies told the Scottish Parliament that there are “serious structural issues” which need to be addressed to safeguard trade with the continent which has been hard won over decades.

“We have ended up with a trading regime that has become complex, costly, slow and prone to break down at its best,” said James Withers, chief executive of Scotland Food and Drink.

Giving evidence to a parliamentary committee he said: “We’ve had a dreadful first few weeks of trading in a post-Brexit world, there’s no way of sugar-coating it… I think the biggest single challenge we have just now is denial. I think it is denial, from the UK Government in particular, of the scale of the problem.”

Also giving evidence, Charlie Adam, NFU Scotland vice president, said that while the farming industry had welcomed the avoidance of a ‘no deal’ outcome which, he said would have been disastrous for Scotland’s farmers, the underlying structural issues which were causing the current problems had to be addressed by both the UK Government and the EU.

Stating that, unlike the fishing and seafood sector, trade disruption had not yet had a significant impact in farm-gate prices he stressed that it was vital that resource and support was provided to reduce the friction to trade.

But consignments of products of animal origin and plants still required extensive checks to ensure that Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) were met, said Adam.

“This involves substantial paperwork and physical inspections, which is causing friction, delay and extra costs for traders”

He said that shipments of pork going to the EU now required 27 different signatures and stamps – and 96 if destined for more than one country.

It was also pointed out that many processors and exporters in the beef and lamb sectors had been avoiding sending consignments abroad until the system settled in –with export volumes currently at only 25-30 per cent of normal levels as it adjusted to the new rules and adapted to the system in a live environment.

Adam also raised the situation which was currently facing the seed potato industry.

For, while the EU had continued to allow ware potatoes for eating and processing to be imported from the UK, the same could not be said for potato seed, a key product for many Scottish farmers:

“As an EU Member State, Britain exported around 30,000 tonnes of seed potatoes, worth £13.5 million, to mainland Europe each year and the majority of these were high-health stocks grown in Scotland,” said Adam.

And with EU seed currently granted a derogation to continue entering the UK, he said that the union wanted to see this decision reversed with a reciprocal ban being introduced.