British farmers face paying for border checkpoints in EU after Brexit halts exports
British farmers are trying to set up red tape and border checks in France costing millions of pounds – and may even pay for it themselves.
Breeders in Britain are unable to export their pedigree cattle, sheep and pigs to the EU because no one has built anyborder control posts where vets can check the animals before they enter the single market.
No private company in France has been prepared so far to invest the millions of euros needed to build a facility, bringing British exports to the European mainland to a halt since Brexit.
Now the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) is planning to ask farmers if they will help fund the facility themselves. Meanwhile, some breeders say they have only months left before shutting down their export operations, while others are relocating to the EU.
John Royle, chief livestock adviser to the NFU, has been trying to rescue British farmers who specialise in breeding prize-winning cattle, sheep and pigs that are then used to establish their own herds and flocks.
“These are high-value, highly sought-after, high-health animals,” he said. “They travel in better conditions than you or I would do on a ferry or in the tunnel. When you consider what Brexit has cost countries on both sides of the border, with a modest investment we could restart trade to the benefit of both British and European livestock producers.”
The problems with being a third country have become clearer for travellers at Dover, with six-hour delays last month caused by checks on British passports and a lack of border posts. But ports in the UK and the EU have at least taken some steps to prepare for Brexit bureaucracy affecting tourists. Not so for livestock.
In 2019, Royle began writing to ports from the Hook of Holland and Zeebrugge to
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