ONE YEAR on from the UK’s departure from Europe, NFU Scotland has called on the UK Government to address the significant issues still affecting Scottish farming, food and drink.

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement signed on December 30, 2020, was heralded as a new era of tariff-free and quota-free trade between the UK and the EU – but the NFUS said it had turned out not to be friction-free.

Union director of policy Jonnie Hall said: “Trade with the EU in the first 12 months of Brexit has been far from smooth. The friction at border controls for Scottish producers exporting to the EU, however, has been compounded by the UK Government continuing to grant ‘grace periods’ to imports from the EU from similar controls.

"That asymmetric trade remains ongoing and is a damaging consequence of the UK’s lack of practical preparation for Brexit," said Mr Hall.

Read more: Post-Brexit trade agreements add less than 0.2% to UK economy

“Add in issues around specific products, such as seed potatoes, and specific issues, such as the Northern Ireland Protocol, and it’s clear that post-Brexit trade with the EU remains challenging at best and potentially damaging for some.

“Leaving the EU and the Single Market created other production, harvesting and supply chain issues across many sectors because of permanent and seasonal labour constraints. Meat sector processing challenges around staffing levels, felt most acutely by those in the pork industry, remain very fragile. And for the dairy, pig and poultry sectors, finding permanent staff has become increasingly difficult following our departure from Europe."

Unfortunately, the Seasonal Workers Pilot introduced by the UK Government had been 'late and inadequate', said Mr Hall, leaving many growers questioning the wisdom of putting high value crops in the ground this coming spring, when there is a real risk they will end up left to rot in the absence of a picking workforce.

"The Home Office would appear to be a law unto themselves," he added, noting that headway the union had made with other Government departments and ministers had often hit a brick wall when ideas reached Priti Patel's territory.

"To them it is all about immigration – and that is a very political issue in some quarters of government."

He added: “It remains disappointing that, as we go into 2022, there remains so many Brexit unknowns. As things stand, the potential threats to Scottish agriculture continue to vastly outweigh the potential opportunities."