Brexit: M&S foods have 'reduced shelf life' due to NI protocol

Marks & Spencer says it has seen a reduction in the shelf life of its products in Northern Ireland because of the time it takes to comply with the requirements of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The retailer warned that it would face further time delays if the protocol was fully implemented.

Currently supermarkets are trading under a grace period.

It means they do not face a full range of checks and controls.

Sacha Berendji, the retailer's managing director for Ireland and Northern Ireland, was speaking to a House of Lords Committee.

The protocol is a special Brexit deal for Northern Ireland designed to prevent the return of a hard land border with the Republic of Ireland.

It works by keeping Northern Ireland inside the EU's single market for goods.

£30m spent on Brexit

This means Northern Ireland continues to follow some EU laws, and there are checks and paperwork for certain goods which are imported into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

Most of the checks and controls are applied to food products.

Mr Berendji said M&S had spent £30m to deal with the initial impacts of Brexit and the protocol on its business across the island of Ireland.

This had included setting up at new export centre in Scotland.

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He said that processing goods for dispatch to Ireland and Northern Ireland now takes a day longer than before Brexit.

"Previously goods would come to our depot on the evening before and been shipped out ready for sale the following morning.

"The process now requires an extra 24 hours in our export centre which means we have taken one night's life out of all the product we ship, which clearly has an impact on shelf life for our customers."

'Seven extra hours' without grace periods

He said the current grace periods were significant and by comparison it made much more effort to process a lorry going to Ireland which has full EU controls.

"It can take up to 20 people an hour to dispatch every vehicle with the correct documentation to Northern Ireland, that number is eight hours for the Republic of Ireland," he said.

"If the easements weren't in place, every vehicle would take around an extra seven hours."

Mr Berendji said the company was now sourcing more on the island of Ireland and has about 450 locally-produced products.

This includes a Newry company making all the sandwiches they sell in Ireland.

Prices 'no higher' in NI

Meanwhile, the head of the British Retail Consortium, which represents other major retailers, said the grace periods meant consumers should not have experienced price rises beyond what has happened in other parts of the UK.

Andrew Opie said: "We've pretty much maintained the ranges we had prior to leaving the EU.

"Also the UK pricing model most supermarkets offer, which is the same kind of pricing for the basic ranges across the UK, has been maintained in Northern Ireland."