Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent representations he has received from food producers and food industry bodies in Great Britain on the grouped transport of food and food products from multiple producers to the EU.

Prior to the end of transition period we took steps to ensure that groupage exports could continue post January 1^st. This included supporting the development of logistics hubs and the introduction of the Groupage Export Facilitation Scheme for exporters of certain products of animal origin from stable supply chains, packaged for the final consumer. These are generally working well.

We are aware of challenges experienced by exporters of mixed loads of products of animal origin and other commodities from different exporting premises. We have already published guidance on groupage models that can support movements of these loads to Northern Ireland and are working with the European Commission and EU Member States to make similar guidance available for GB-EU Exports. As part of this we are in regular contact with both the haulage industry and trade associations.