EU Exports of Pork to UK Plummet
EU countries have exported 181,800 tonnes of pork and pork meat products to the United Kingdom in the first quarter of 2024. Although that might seem a lot, it is the lowest Q1 volume on record, excluding 2021 when Brexit had a severe impact on trade, the agricultural levy board AHDB reports.
The situation might get significantly worse in the rest of this year because of the new border controls the UK introduced on April 30th. The British Meat Processors Associations BMPA warns that the cost of those controls are highly underestimated. ‘’The estimates are misleading,’’ Peter Hardwick, Trade Policy Advisor says.
The export of European frozen pork to the British market declined by some 16% year on year. The export of bacon by over 6% and that of processed ham, shoulders and pieces by 7.3%. However, in value, total pork imports to the UK increased in the first quarter, compared to a year earlier, by 4% to £683,6 million, due to the higher prices.
Those figures are, to a small extent, influenced by new administrative border post-Brexit rules which came into effect on Jan 30th this year. A bigger blow, so to speak, came 3 months later when the so-called Border Target Operating Model BTOM came into force on April 30th. Now, incoming lorries full of meat, dairy, flowers and other so-called high or medium risk products can be stopped at British border posts to allow officials to carry out a physical check.
Read full article Share on twitter