“We’re just relieved there is a way forward,” says Jamie Keeble, co-founder of Heck Food.
The family-run Yorkshire sausage producer says there has always been demand for its products in Northern Ireland but it has been “hamstrung” by the Brexit trading rules.
With the new Windsor Framework, exporting to Northern Ireland is on the cards again for the meat manufacturer.
“We’re looking at the technical detail now,” Mr Keeble says.
“We have been operating in extraordinary times over the last three years and being a food manufacturer has had huge challenges.”
The producer is hoping to restart exporting into 50-60 stores in Northern Ireland through its network of supermarket partners.
“It’s a huge opportunity to get back in there and hopefully it’ll be a gateway back into the EU. We’re more than happy to do the paperwork,” the 32-year-old says.
For British sausage makers the deal marks an end to the stalemate over the prospect of an EU ban on fresh sausages into Northern Ireland.
Mr Keeble says customers should start to see Heck products in stores by September. “It’s how the retailers do their ranging, they have range resets – one is in April, one in September.”
But he says the Yorkshire factory has “huge capacity” and will be able to meet demand.
Sainsbury’s, which carries some of the Heck range, said it welcomed a simplification of the processes to reduce friction when moving products between Britain and Northern Ireland.
The new agreement means the same UK public health and safety standards will apply for all retail food and drink in the UK internal market.
Companies will have to register as trusted traders under a new United Kingdom Internal Market Scheme (UKIMS), scrapping what Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called “burdensome customs bureaucracy”.
The PM emphasised that food available on the shelves of shops and supermarkets in Britain would be equally available in Northern Ireland.
Mr Sunak said the purpose of the framework was to allow the internal market to flow smoothly and that business would notice “a positive difference almost immediately”.
The agricultural sector in Northern Ireland also indicated its relief at the announcement.
Angus Wilson from Wilson’s Country says it is “positive” for the potato industry.
The chair and founder of the potato processor, which represents 20 growers in Northern Ireland and serves supermarkets and restaurants throughout Ireland, says it has been a “difficult two or three years”.
‘I was terrified’
Growers in Northern Ireland produce 120,000 tonnes of potatoes a year and rely on seed potatoes from Scotland. Mr Wilson believes the deal will transform his company’s fortunes.
“We’re delighted that we can access the right varieties and the right quality and health status of the Scottish seed.
“Originally, whenever there was talk about a border within the island of Ireland I was terrified as a small business that we couldn’t trade with our partners in the south, so we were accepting of a border in the Irish Sea.
“We’re very happy, we’re nearly getting back to where we were, albeit we need to read the detail,” he says.
For Alan Mercer, managing director of Hillmount, one of Northern Ireland’s biggest garden centres, the Windsor Framework could make a “huge difference”.
Instead of needing full EU certification, all plants and seeds will move under the existing UK-wide plant passport scheme, in line with traders throughout the UK.
“Before, products would get stuck at customs for three or four days and they would die or get diseased. If that now changes we can order from multiple suppliers. That will be fantastic,” the 37-year-old says.
However, Mr Mercer believes the process for importing bulbs will not change unless there is specific packaging for the NI market.
“I just can’t see that happening,” he adds.
