The new Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement between the UK and EU will help slash delivery times for cheese imports and exports, and open up markets for artisan makers, according to distributors.
The new deal, which will align UK and EU rules on agri-foods next year, will remove the need for vets’ Export Health Certificates (EHCs), which can cost up to £200 per consignment. Other layers of bureaucracy to be scrapped include Organic Certificates of Inspection, Port Health Authority identity check fees and sampling fees, which can add £1,200 to a cheese load.
British cheese exporters say the deal will help reduce delivery times and give greater confidence that shipments will not fall foul of bureaucracy.
“Vets’ certificates are pretty substantial in terms of cost and lead times,” said Srdja Mastilovic, export & wholesale manager at Neal’s Yard Dairy, which exports cheese across the EU. “They add a least another week to our shipments to the Continent because we have to prepare it and then wait for a vet to check.”
At Coombe Castle International, which exports cheese to more than 40 countries, Ben Hutchins, sales & marketing director, said many exporters have experienced problems around EHCs.
“Simple things like page numbers missing mean the shipment needs to return to the UK or documents need couriering to meet the truck,” he said. “The main costs are the checks at the border rather than the process itself. A day’s demurrage is somewhere in the region of €700 at the border, so costs can rack up even on the smallest of details that need resolving. Then there is the cost of disposal and challenges with managing customers.”
The new agreement will also benefit importers, making it easier for smaller producers on the Continent to send cheese to the UK, according to Brindisa’s cheese sales manager Juan Giner. The Spanish food importer has just had to delist a cheesemaker in South Eastern Spain because the nearest vet was more than 100km away.
“We work with a lot of small farm-based businesses, which by their nature are remote,” he said. “Not all of them have vets nearby, so they often have to wait until they are available, which adds to lead times. Hopefully we can relist cheeses next year when rules change.”
This article first appeared in the August issue of Fine Food Digest.
