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Exports of British farm products to the EU have dropped almost 40% in the five years since Brexit, highlighting the trade barriers caused by the UK’s divorce from the EU in 2020.
Analysis of HMRC data by the National Farmers’ Union shows the decline in sales of everything from British beef to cheddar cheese has dropped by 37.4% in the five years since 2019, the last full year before Brexit.
The poultry sector has been hit hardest with exports down 37.7%, followed by beef exports, which are down 23.6%, lamb 14% and dairy 15.6%.
Tom Bradshaw, the NFU president, said not all of the decline could be put down to Brexit but it showed the scale of damage caused by the UK leaving the European Union.
He warned removing the trading barriers would not magically revive EU markets for the British food sector.
“Simply reducing friction doesn’t mean we are going to get the EU market back again. There aren’t empty spaces on the shelves with a label saying ‘waiting for British products’.”
In other words, it could take years to restore Brexit losses.
“Rebuilding demand will take time, effort and real focus,” he said.
The analysis comes as the UK and the EU look to set up fortnightly political phone meetings to ensure the negotiations over farming and other elements of the “reset” in relations go smoothly between now and May or June, when the next leaders’ summit is scheduled.
Cabinet Office and EU relations minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, and European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič had a bilateral on the sidelines of the trade deal review on Monday and agreed formalising talks would help nip any issue in the bud before it was too late.
A government source said that while relations between Thomas-Symonds and Šefčovič were good there was a desire to formalise regular political-level negotiations in the run-up to the summit.
“We want to step the political engagement up even further to iron out issues and drive forward negotiations. Both sides are keen to get positive results and keep building,” the source said.
The collapse of talks over the UK’s full participation in the EU’s €150bn Safe defence programme was seen as unnecessary and a failure of statecraft
The EU had set a €2bn price tag on joining while the UK was only prepared to put in “hundreds of millions”, but many thought the gap should have been closed through political discussion given both sides agree on the need to strengthen Europe’s defence in the face of a US retreat.
In the near term, the NFU is asking for the deal to ensure British farmers have sufficient time to transition to new rules that will apply to the GB market.
It is also asking for certain exemptions to help safeguard areas of progress and innovation. For example, England has been faster than the EU to approve gene editing to develop disease resistant crops.
“The EU is behind us, but moving in the same direction on plants. My argument to the EU is if you genuinely want to adopt this in the EU, don’t put the handbrake on the UK,” Bradshaw said.
The UK outside the EU, has been able to move faster on vaccines on TB and aviation flu, for example, said Bradshaw, and has also approved some plant protection products, such as a fungicide used in cereal growing.
Bradshaw says the deal should recognise the UK’s advances and if the EU is going in the same direction as the UK it should agree to “carve outs and transition arrangements”.
He argues an adequate transition period is needed to prevent crops, which have been grown legally under current Great Britain rules prior to any agreement, becoming unsellable after a deal.
