Irish Sea Border: Measures to ease mixed food loads to be announced

Measures will be announced soon to ease problems with mixed loads of food products moving from GB to NI, the government has said.

That type of haulage, known as groupage, has seen major disruption due to the new Irish Sea border.

It has meant independent retailers have not been able to receive their normal deliveries from GB suppliers.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said new guidance would appear within days.

He said "practical mitigations" had been worked out with industry.

Groupage is when goods from different companies for different customers are grouped together on one lorry.

It has faced problems because food products now face strict EU rules.

Products such as meat, milk and fish now need to be certified by vets when moving from GB to NI.

This certification is being phased in for retailers but already applies in full for food service and catering firms.

When the certificates are issued the lorry trailer is supposed to be sealed.

That is relatively straightforward when one company in GB is sending a load directly to another company in NI.

However, a groupage movement could involve picking up goods from several different warehouses with loads potentially moving from one lorry to another along the way.

This means trailer seals having to be broken, goods recertified and seals reapplied multiple times.

This is proving complex, time consuming and prone to error.

Therefore many hauliers have been refusing to transport groupage food loads.

The BBC understands that the new process will involve individual pallets being sealed by methods such as being wrapped in plastic.

The lorry trailer will only be sealed when the final pallet is loaded.

It is likely that all groupage loads arriving in Northern Ireland will have to be physically inspected.

It is understood that the process has been agreed with the EU and could be used on a trial basis as soon as tomorrow.