Exporting products of animal origin – contact the FSA

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has sent a letter asking for producers currently (or thinking about) exporting products of animal origin (POAO) to the EU to get in contact with them by 12 December.

This comes from contingency planning from Defra in the event of a no deal Brexit. If this scenario occurs, then the UK would become a third county post 29 March 2019. Therefore, it would need to gain approval from the EU to be able to export products such as meat and dairy.

How this will affect exports in a no deal is not yet known. Once applications are in, the ball is in the EU’s court to dictate the process and speed at which these can be approved.

Companies supplying or intending to supply the EU need to send the following to the FSA:

· Wanting to be included in the approval list to export to the EU

· The products and volumes exported in the last 12 months and the number of consignments dispatched

· All POAP products and volumes produced in the last 12 months not exported

Those dealing with EU countries that do not respond will not be added to the approval list and risk losing a proportion of their market in a no deal scenario.