Post-Brexit licences for exporting food to EU cost UK firms up to £65m last year

Government to promise it will scrap existing scheme by reaching new deal with Brussels in next 18 months

UK companies spent up to £65m last year on licences to export food and agricultural products to the EU – costs that the government is promising to eliminate as part of a new deal to be agreed by 2027.

Government figures released on Tuesday showed it issued 328,727 such licences last year, at a cost of between £113 and £200 each. That would put the total cost to business at somewhere between £37m and £65m.