What Poland thinks of Britain’s post-Brexit border checks

 

The volume of meat imports has increased since 2021 as Polish companies saw that Britain’s slaughterhouses were struggling to recruit staff in the wake of Brexit. Supermarkets were receptive to the pitch that Polish producers could source quality meat at more competitive prices than available from British farmers.

 

It means Poland’s food producers, and the logistics companies they rely on to bring their wares to Britain, have been preparing for the new border checks which take effect from Tuesday, April 30.

Trade experts in Poland report that last-minute decisions on the UK side, such as the news at the start of April that the government would charge between £29 and £145 per consignment, have not gone down well.

Larger producers and their hauliers are more prepared for the changes, said Agnieszka Kisielewska, an international trade and tax partner at the law firm MDDP. She remains concerned that the information has not trickled down to all companies. “I had SMEs in the logistics industry looking for the information on calls [last] week,” she said.

“Overall the change is good. We need bio-security checks and we cannot skip that. But a risk management system and a well-organised approach is needed [at companies] to get through this change.”.

 

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