GB food manufacturers 'significantly reduce sales to NI'

GB food manufacturers have significantly reduced sales to Northern Ireland as a result of the Protocol, an industry survey suggests.

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) surveyed 83 members between 4 and 19 October.

Just under half the respondents were large businesses with more than 250 employees.

Among those, large business sales volumes to Northern Ireland were down by an average of 10% this year.

The FDF said that large businesses make up the majority of the volume of products sold to Northern Ireland from GB.

Smaller businesses reported larger drops in sales but those figures are based on a very small sample.

Across all businesses in the survey, sales to Northern Ireland were down by 13% on average.

The Protocol is the Brexit deal which prevents a hard Irish border by keeping Northern Ireland inside the EU's single market for goods.

That also creates a new trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Food products arriving into Northern Ireland from GB face the greatest range of new checks and controls.

However, not all those checks are being applied due to "grace periods".

The FDF survey suggests that if the grace periods ended without new arrangements then sales volumes from GB would fall further - by up to a third.

The respondents suggested that the biggest negative impact would be on raw materials and ingredients.

The EU has acknowledged that the Protocol is causing difficulties and has proposed new arrangements which it says would significantly reduce the checks and controls.

Those proposals are part of a negotiation between the UK and EU.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that local producers in Northern Ireland have been able to increase sales to customers like supermarkets.

In particular, supermarkets have used more local suppliers of fresh processed meat products like sausage and burgers, rather than bringing them in from GB.