Ministers under pressure to pause checks amid warnings £200m of extra costs will be passed on to the consumer
Ministers are being told to delay or stop checks on fruit and vegetables that could begin from January and are expected to add to food, the Government subsequently confirmed it is now considering delaying these checks to July 2025 as part of a review, a key demand of industry which was not under consideration as recently as two weeks ago.
Last week an Institute for Fiscal Studies report identified the phenomenon of “cheapflation” – with poorer households paying 29.1 per cent more for their food between 2021 and 2023, compared to 23.5 per cent for wealthier households. “None of that is good for British consumers in terms of choice or cost of food,” she said “So this is a Brexit headache that is hanging over from the last government that we need to fix.”
He added: “We are possibly in the honeymoon phase but the industry’s patience is rapidly wearing thin, so we do need urgent clarification and urgent change.” She added: “The discussion of this so far has been very much about delis but actually it’s corner shops, it’s small scale cash and carry importers who are really going to feel this as the major supermarkets are taking a bit of a hit in the long run on the basis that actually some of their competitors will go out of business.
But she suggested ministers may want to impose controls due to the “asymmetric” current system that allows EU producers to export to the UK free of red tape, while British firms face full controls in the other direction.
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