Scottish farming should come out ahead overall from a new UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement, although there are concerns over mycotoxin limits, livestock identification and animal health rules, NFU Scotland (NFUS) says, according to Farmers Weekly. The agreement, due to be confirmed at the UK-EU summit in Brussels on 20 November, will align Great Britain with EU rules on plant and animal health, parts of animal welfare, organics and food labelling.
In a blog post, NFUS policy manager Kate Adams says the deal should reduce trade barriers and costs for Scottish red meat and dairy exports and let seed potato exports to the EU resume. She also welcomed expected improvements to country-of-origin labelling and protection against Brazilian meat imports that do not meet equivalent production standards.
Mycotoxins are a particular worry for Scottish oat growers. The EU sets lower legal maximum limits than Great Britain for certain mycotoxins in cereals used for food and drink, and the UK supply chain has not yet had to test against those lower limits, so the full implications are unclear. Scotland's wet, mild climate could raise the risk of contamination in oats, which is why the union wants flexibility and enough time to adjust.
NFUS also wants progress on ultra-high-frequency electronic identification (UHF-EID) for livestock, which it has advocated for more than 20 years and believes EU law allows. On animal health it raised concerns about stricter EU rules on antimicrobial use, bovine tuberculosis and avian influenza, arguing that further alignment on antimicrobials is unnecessary given the UK's low usage. It also wants UK and Scottish farmers to have a real say in future EU rules if Great Britain keeps aligning with them.
"We recognise the opportunities that the SPS agreement could bring," Ms Adams wrote. "However, these benefits must not come at the expense of Scottish farming and crofting realities."
Photo: Chris Andrews / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Farmers Weekly
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