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Four in 10 food and drink companies have said they will stop or cut supplies going from Britain to Northern Ireland due to Brexit, according to a survey of some of the UK’s biggest producers.
The alarming result of the poll will confirm the worst fears of MPs, in particular those of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), as well as the retail and hospitality sector in Northern Ireland.
Just over 20% of the vendors surveyed said they were planning to “pause GB-NI deliveries to ensure we can legally comply with NI rules.” Another 11.6% said they were going to stop supply “while we assess whether it remains a viable market” and 4.7% said they would reduce the volume of products sold from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
The survey is the third monthly Brexit survey conducted by the Food and Beverage Federation on business readiness for the end of the transition period. He said he surveyed 50 members, including some of Britain’s largest food suppliers responsible for well-known brands.
“These are businesses that would be familiar to buyers,” said Dominic Goudie, FDF’s director of international trade.
The survey comes just days after Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s warned that they may have to reduce the supply of certain product lines to Northern Ireland.
Goudie said that many businesses were unclear on what to do after Brexit to trade in Northern Ireland and were unaware that they needed different labeling for the region after January 1, and that they needed to request registration and identification of specific economic operators. (EORI) for Northern Ireland.
So far, trade between Britain and Northern Ireland has been smooth, but as of January 1, customs, regulatory and sanitary measures will be implemented as part of the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol agreed to by Boris Johnson last year.
Goudie said that one of the biggest problems was that “there is a real lack of clarity and detail about what really needs to be done to get products in Northern Ireland, and how the border processes will actually work in practice”, both from the UK and EU.
While over 95% of respondents had an EORI number to trade in the UK, only 33% had obtained one with an XI prefix to allow them to continue trading in Northern Ireland. The numbers were being issued automatically by those who registered with a new government-contracted body, the Merchant Support Service (TSS), in Northern Ireland.
The TSS was launched just a few weeks ago and there was no public communication campaign to get the message across to traders in Britain, Goudie said. “Even the cut-off point for registering with TSS to obtain a NI EORI number was November 23, if you want to get one now you have to register manually,” he said. “They need to extend that date.”
He backed calls for a “tightening period” for the Northern Ireland protocol, saying that companies needed “more than four months” to make the necessary changes. “It was on November 5 that they updated the labeling guide on the government website. Everything has come too late, ”he said.
He said the “light touch” approach in the first weeks that the government has indicated it would apply would offer “no legal basis” to negotiate for companies seeking compensation by achieving 100% compliance with local laws.
“They can’t legally sign those forms, so that’s one of the main reasons. [why they are pausing supplies]”Goudie said.
Many companies had prepared for Brexit by building stocks, buying time until new trade rules were clearer.
Last month, Northern Ireland companies called on the EU to delay the introduction of the Northern Ireland protocol, warning that they “simply won’t be ready” for the mandatory controls on January 1.
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