The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) has warned that the fresh produce supply chain could see major costs and disruption as a result of the Government’s UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement.

Nigel Jenney, chief executive of the FPC, said the agreement had been presented as a solution to border friction, but warned that FPC analysis pointed to a very different reality for the UK fresh produce sector.

While checks on certain EU imports are being eased, FPC stated that new and “far more onerous” controls are being placed on global supply chains that already deliver a 99.5% compliance record. The organisation estimated that the additional burden on the fresh produce sector could exceed £300 million.

According to FPC, the policy risks affecting up to four million tonnes of imported goods, with an estimated 120,000 annual consignments potentially subject to physical inspection at the UK border.

Jenney said the move was “not a simplification” but a “transfer of burden”, and warned that Government was prioritising political alignment with the EU over evidence-based border policy: “The Government has presented this deal as one that reduces barriers and eases trade. In certain respects — for a certain subset of importers dealing with EU-origin goods — that is true. But for those of us who depend on Rest of World supply chains, the picture is fundamentally different.”

New system could cause increased “inspection pressure”

With FPC stating that the UK operates a “proven, proportionate and science-based SPS regime”, Jenney warned that replacing the system with a more bureaucratic, method-based model would increase inspections, certification requirements, pre-notification obligations, reporting demands and operational delays.

He continued: “The Government’s own scientific authorities did not consider these EU-style controls necessary when we left the EU. Nothing has changed in the science. What has changed is the politics.”

Under the expanded regime, products such as citrus, mangoes, blueberries, sweet potatoes, peppers and many other fresh produce lines could face greater inspection pressure, said FPC, despite operating through supply chains that are already heavily regulated and time-sensitive.

Jenney warned that costs would not simply be absorbed by the supply chain: “None of those costs disappear into the supply chain. They travel through it. They land on businesses operating on margins that were already under pressure. And ultimately, they land on UK consumers.”

“Policies that increase the cost and complexity of Rest of World imports do not strengthen UK food security.”

FPC said that Government risks creating a “structural imbalance” in the UK’s food system by easing EU trade flows while placing new pressure on global supply chains that are essential to year-round availability on British shelves. Jenney went on to say that the UK could not replace Rest of World imports with domestic production or EU alternatives, and argued that Britain’s food security depended on a “balanced model” that combined domestic production with access to global supply.

He said: “Policies that increase the cost and complexity of Rest of World imports do not strengthen UK food security. They erode it and drive self-inflicted UK food inflation.”

He warned that any SPS agreement must work for EU and global trade simultaneously, rather than creating benefits in one area by transferring cost and complexity elsewhere.

Practical, evidence-based alternatives designed to reduce UK-EU friction had “appeared to have been set aside”, said Jenney, stating that the organisation had repeatedly warned Government about the consequences of previous border control decisions and that many of those warnings had since materialised in higher costs, operational disruption and damage to supply chain relationships.

Jenney continued: “We warned about the consequences of previous border control decisions. We were right. I am warning again now, and I am asking Government to demonstrate that it is capable of learning from that experience.”

FPC has called for formal engagement with the fresh produce sector on alternative proposals, with Jenney urging businesses across the fresh produce supply chain to write directly to the Prime Minister and copy in their local MP. He warned that the window to influence the final outcome was open, but unlikely to remain so for long.

Jenney concluded: “The UK must secure a win-win that promotes EU and Rest of World trade simultaneously on behalf of hard-pressed consumers. A policy which eases EU trade by transferring burden onto global supply chains is not a simplification. It is a substitution — and one the UK food system cannot afford.”