EU Exit: Groupage solutions for trade into Northern Ireland

2 February 2021

Under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Northern Ireland remains aligned with the EU on issues of product and market regulations (eg: food labelling rules). All goods sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland must comply with EU standards.

Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are also managed as a single territory for bio-security purposes, meaning that agri-food goods sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland are subject to sanitary / phyto-sanitary (SPS) checks.

In the first weeks of 2021, traders moving goods from Great Britain into Northern Ireland have run into a number of issues, including problems of “groupage” (ie: multiple goods combined into a single shipment for efficiency).

Where a single truck or container load contains several products, all must comply with EU rules in order to enter Northern Ireland – if a single item is not compliant, then all are blocked.

(The same applies to goods sent from Great Britain to the Continental EU, but problems seem to have been most pronounced on the Irish Sea route. The UK will apply similar measures on groupage loads as 2021 progresses).

To ease this pressure, Defra and DAERA have agreed a new groupage solution, with two possible approaches offered to hauliers and their clients:

  • Consolidation hubs model – All items in a shipment are sent to a specific location. An on-site certifying officer uses knowledge gathered from EHCs, health attestation or other evidence to certify the entire load. The load is then sealed for onward movement.
  • Linear model – Hauliers pick up consignments from multiple locations. Each consignment is checked and sealed individually by a certifying officer and the complete load is sealed at the point of final dispatch before leaving for the port.

Consignments must be sealed (eg: with a plastic tag) in such a way that the seal number and physical seal are visible and that any tampering is evident.

Sealed consignments can be placed in one part of a larger trailer or container, provided that it is physically separated from other items, with one point of entry.

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