UK food sales to EU have fallen by 20% since Brexit

British food sales to Europe have plummeted by a fifth since 2018, the farming minister has admitted, sparking calls for Labour to slash post-Brexit red tape and strike a food standards agreement with the EU.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

Daniel Zeichner said that while the UK’s current deal with the EU allows tariff-free access to the bloc, leaving the single market and customs union has “had an impact on the export of agrifood products”.

“Agri-food trade with the EU has fallen since 2018 in real terms (after adjusting for trade inflation) by 20 per cent (exports) and 11 per cent (imports),” he added.

The figures mark a stunning decline and are particularly pressing as sales to the European Union make up 57 per cent of all UK food exports, making it Britain’s biggest market by far, worth £14bn in 2023.

The Brexit hit is caused by new requirements for physical, documentary and ID checks complicating food trade between the UK and Europe.

But Mr Zeichner said it was difficult to separate the effects of Brexit from global shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the signing of free trade deals with other countries such as New Zealand.

But SNP MP Stephen Gethins, who forced Mr Zeichner to produce the assessment, said the figures showed Brexit had dealt “an entirely self-inflicted blow to the economy and hardpressed rural communities”.

He told The Independent: “Some of the best food and drink produced anywhere in Europe comes from Scotland and elsewhere in the UK.

“Yet red tape due to the UK unnecessarily leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union has been devastating for those producers.