Almost every farming sector that trades with Europe is grinding to a halt this weekend as the lack of agreement over a trade deal with the EU paralyses agricultural exports.
Sheepmeat producers have expressed outrage at the threat to their breeding stock trade with Northern Ireland, as from January 1 animals will not meet EU export health or residency requirements.
Meanwhile potato producers like Angus grower Andrew Skea say they have shut up shop for the year because without agreement over health status, the border is now effectively closed to potato exports.
And the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) claims that whatever happens between now and midnight on December 31, a large degree of trade deal confusion is certain to spread into the new year.
All this came on the day the latest Scottish food and drink export statistics for the first quarter of this year showed sales were down £1.1bn on the same period in 2019 – 22.4% year-on-year – largely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The SAMW warned that the health and economic uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, and the trade unknowns of Brexit, were set to “overhang the future of Scotland’s red meat sector”.
SAMW president Andy McGowan said: “Even if the political and ideological barriers are at last overcome, allowing a future UK/EU trading agreement to be reached by the year’s end, the practical workings of any new arrangement will need time to be implemented.
“If ever we needed a clear and effective trade settlement with the EU, given the inescapable demands of Covid-19, this was surely the time. Irrespective of individual views on Brexit, and SAMW has members on both sides of the debate, the need for clarity on trading terms and tariffs has always been a vital requirement.
“Unfortunately, we still don’t have that clarity, leaving many businesses in a state of limbo as we move into 2021.”
