Supermarket chiefs say food distribution to NI will become worse unless government intervenes

The UK’s major supermarkets have written to government warning that if it does not intervene, there could be further serious disruption to NI food supplies.

There have been shortages of some food products on NI supermarket shelves as retailers wrestle with post-Brexit requirements for bringing food into NI from GB.

The chief executives of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Iceland, Co-Op and Marks & Spencer have written to Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove to call for urgent intervention.

They said that if further new certification requirements are introduced in April the system will become “unworkable” the BBC reported.

A three month “grace period” means that supermarkets currently don’t need to comply with all EU certification requirements.

The supermarket chiefs said that if the grace period expires without a long term solution the problems will get worse.

“We accept clear progress needs to be made by 1/4/21 and are happy to discuss our issues and solutions directly with EU officials,” the BBC reported them as saying.

“However, until then we need an assurance that the current process based on a trusted trader scheme... doesn’t change until a workable replacement is agreed.”

A government spokesman told the BBC: “The grace period for supermarkets and their suppliers is working well, goods continue to flow effectively between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and we are working intensively with industry as new requirements come in.”

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