Edinburgh haggis boss tells MSPs about problems of post-Brexit trade with Europe

Haggis boss James Macsween told MSPs about the extra burdens involved in selling goods to Europe after Brexit as they visited his packaging and dispatch warehouse.

Holyrood’s Europe and external affairs committee is looking at how the new trading arrangements between the UK and the European Union are working, ready to contribute to an upcoming joint review.

MSPs Keith Brown, Kate Forbes and Alexander Stewart wit James Macsween at the Macsween warehouse in Loanhead. Picture: Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament | Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament

And three committee members - Tory MSP Alexander Stewart and SNP MSPs Kate Forbes and Keith Brown - went to the Macsween warehouse in Loanhead to hear more about the problems surrounding the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement and how it could be improved.

James Macsween, managing director of Macsween of Edinburgh, said: “The main barriers will be the cost or the additional cost and burden that's been put into the supply chain. We were already exporting to other countries outside Europe. So we already had a really good head start on how to comply with the changes that we were going to be subjected to because of Brexit.

“But you’re now having to fill out an export health certificate to send foods into Europe. Pre-Brexit, you used to put an order on a lorry that would go to Germany and it would arrive two or three days later and you were able to use the same product codes, the same invoicing, the same paperwork and the same process as if it was going to London, as if it was going to Frankfurt. Unfortunately, that's now not the case.

“I would like to see a fairer and more level playing field on trade and to try and get back to where we were on the free movement of goods that we did have before Brexit.”

Committee deputy convener Alexander Stewart said: “Macsween’s was one of the companies that was on our roundtable a few weeks ago and as a famous Scottish manufacturer of haggis and black pudding since the 1950s, they are very much involved in producing and distributing their product throughout the United Kingdom, but also throughout other parts of Europe.”