Analysis: How things will change for pet food imports to the UK from 2024

In an effort to digitalize the UK’s trading system, the Border Target Operating Model (TOM) lists a set of new controls to protect domestic animal and human health against potential security and biosecurity threats.

This references an upcoming regulation on imports of goods from countries outside the UK, including the EU. TOM categorizes products under three risk categories – high, medium and low -, each needing different documentation to import products into Great Britain.

EU countries exporting animal by-products (ABP) for the manufacture of pet food, dog chews, flavoring and frozen and raw pet food fall under medium risk, while processed and canned pet food falls under low risk. For non-EU countries, all categories of pet food and ABP imports from permitted countries fall under medium risk.

“Since the beginning of 2021, UK pet food manufacturers have faced the full reach of EU controls on exported products, whilst the EU has enjoyed continued, easy access to the UK marketplace,” says to GlobalPETS Donna Holland, UK Pet Food’s Technical and Regulatory Affairs Manager.

According to Holland, this is the “biggest change” to UK import rules since Brexit became into force.

Tax on each pet food consignment

UK Pet Food confirms that a “Common User Charge” between £20–£43 ($24–$53/€23–€50) will be levied on each consignment of pet food arriving in the UK. This charge is intended to recover the costs of Border Control Posts (BCPs).

The potential cost impact is yet to be known, and the government has been consulting on methodology and rates.

UK Pet Food informed that the government is proposing a “trusted trader approach” to reduce controls further and move toward electronic phytosanitary certificates for regulated plants and plant products to keep costs down, speed up the process and reduce fraud.

More checks and certificates

Low-risk consignments will not require health certification or routine physical checks, but medium-risk imports will require pre-notification, health certificates for non-EU-origin imports, and document checks by 31 January 2024. They may be liable to identity and physical checks at the border as well.

The second phase of controls – extending the checks for EU-origin products – will come into force by 30 April 2024. Safety and security declarations for EU imports will come into force from 31 October 2024.