The Fresh Produce Journal Podcast
Jul 2, 2026 · 8 min · 7 segments
Nina Pullman is joined by chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium, Nigel Jenney, to discuss how the upcoming EU-UK reset deal could spell trouble for imports from the rest of the world. While…
Nigel JenneyGuestNina PullmanHostSo we've just heard you talk on stage about your concerns about the upcoming SPS agreement and how that's going to impact the sector.
Could you just summarise that in a nutshell? You gave quite a stark warning to the industry and I wonder if you could just repeat that and summarise it for us.
OK, look, a bit of a history lesson to begin with is that you recall several years ago now, as an organisation, we secured no border checks for EU fruit and vegetables coming to the UK.
The government continues to say, if you're reading the press, that our industry is going to save a considerable amount of money and it will be much easier to trade in our sector.
We fundamentally disagree because I've just given you one example where things will not change.
The UK scientists have reduced the border checks on fresh produce substantially, which is absolutely as it should be.
However, when and if we agree to the rules that the government is currently talking about, we will move to much more draconian, much more protectionist rules that the EU has adopted, that many, many staple fresh produce items that we enjoy regularly will move to what could well be 100% checks at the UK border.
So the disruption in the supply chain, the cost in the supply chain is absolutely enormous.
And if I put it in context for you very quickly, we believe it's at least £300 million annually.
So just imagine you want your container to leave that port tomorrow because it's for immediate customer delivery and you get told come back in five days.
How will you manage that situation? We will be releasing further information shortly.
There's lots of information on our website that we're more than happy to share.
We're also going to offer a call to action to industry to actually really make the government understand what this means, not just for our industry, but actually what it means for hard-pressed consumers forever in the UK.
And to be clear, obviously the upcoming deal, what they're looking to do is ease trade and imports for the UK between the EU.
And what you're pointing out here is the impact on the trade with the rest of the world.
And I think you said that accounted for about 50% of fresh produce imports to the UK.
So we've just heard you talk on stage about your concerns about the upcoming SPS agreement and how that's going to impact the sector.
Could you just summarise that in a nutshell? You gave quite a stark warning to the industry and I wonder if you could just repeat that and summarise it for us.
OK, look, a bit of a history lesson to begin with is that you recall several years ago now, as an organisation, we secured no border checks for EU fruit and vegetables coming to the UK.
The government continues to say, if you're reading the press, that our industry is going to save a considerable amount of money and it will be much easier to trade in our sector.
We fundamentally disagree because I've just given you one example where things will not change.
The UK scientists have reduced the border checks on fresh produce substantially, which is absolutely as it should be.
However, when and if we agree to the rules that the government is currently talking about, we will move to much more draconian, much more protectionist rules that the EU has adopted, that many, many staple fresh produce items that we enjoy regularly will move to what could well be 100% checks at the UK border.
So the disruption in the supply chain, the cost in the supply chain is absolutely enormous.
And if I put it in context for you very quickly, we believe it's at least £300 million annually.
So just imagine you want your container to leave that port tomorrow because it's for immediate customer delivery and you get told come back in five days.
How will you manage that situation? We will be releasing further information shortly.
There's lots of information on our website that we're more than happy to share.
We're also going to offer a call to action to industry to actually really make the government understand what this means, not just for our industry, but actually what it means for hard-pressed consumers forever in the UK.
And to be clear, obviously the upcoming deal, what they're looking to do is ease trade and imports for the UK between the EU.
And what you're pointing out here is the impact on the trade with the rest of the world.
And I think you said that accounted for about 50% of fresh produce imports to the UK.
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