Some deliveries are being held up at the border for as long as 24 hours, with drivers claiming their consignments containing perishable goods have been left spoiled. The group said importers were also battling inconsistent charges for various shipments and were starting to review whether they would keep shipping into Britain.
It said: “It is worth noting that the EU is the major supplier of many of the UK’s food and ingredients, and that much of EU-GB trade operates on a ‘just-in-time’ basis, often involving product with significantly shorter shelf-life than that arriving from other origins.”
This meant any friction between Britain and the EU posed “significant risks to UK food security and needs to be carefully managed, planned for and mitigated where possible”, it said.
UK exporters have already been subject to the border checks when delivering to the EU for years. According to new figures from the SPS Certification Working Group, British businesses have spent more than £200m on export health certificates needed to ship into the European Union since 2020.
However, the previous government delayed the EU import checks multiple times amid concerns it risked fuelling inflation and pushing food costs higher.
The checks are in place to better protect the UK against importing diseases from the continent, including African swine fever. They apply to many meat, dairy and plant products.
Yet the SPS Certification Working Group said the Dover Port Health Authority, which is at the front line of stopping imports of illegal meat and spotting diseases, warned its funding had been cut by up to 70pc.
It said: “If this is the case it would be wholly unacceptable to the members of this group.”