The new delay to checks on food imports from the EU leaves the UK pig herd exposed to potentially devastating diseases like African swine fever, the sector has warned.
The government said earlier this week that the implementation of the checks had been pushed back - for a fifth time - from October to January 2024.
Meanwhile, new controls on UK meat exports to the EU have been in force ever since the UK formally left the bloc in January 2021.
The checks are seen as crucial to the UK's biosecurity, animal health and food safety, and without them they leave farmers exposed.
The National Pig Association (NPA) warned that the new delay would expose the UK to livestock diseases such as African swine fever (ASF).
The lethal pig disease is currently spreading in domestic animals across Germany, and has also been found in Belgium, Romania, and Poland.
Asian countries – including major pig producing countries such as China and Vietnam – have been hit particularly hard by it, and cases have also been reported in Sub Saharan Africa.
The disease has resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of pigs and wild boar in Europe, and millions in Asia.
NPA chief policy adviser, Charlie Dewhirst said: "This is now the fifth delay in implementing physical checks on goods entering the country, the lack of which is exposing the UK to potentially devastating notifiable diseases like African swine fever.
"ASF is a concern that both the Defra Secretary and Farming Minister have highlighted in recent months.
"[It] is clearly identified as a threat in the government’s own Border Target Operating Model documentation published today.”
Since January 2021, the UK food and farming industry has been told on several occasions that a system delivering border checks on food, with additional measures verifying the health and safety of meat products, would be delivered.
British Veterinary Association president, Malcolm Morley said the latest delay was 'extremely frustrating' and was putting the UK’s biosecurity at 'serious risk of imported diseases like ASF'.
NFU Scotland said the latest delay would "anger and appal" the UK food and farming sector, as the government favoured a "cheap food policy" that encouraged "asymmetric trade".
The union's president, Martin Kennedy said: "Its lax approach to border controls continues to leave farmers exposed to the introduction of devastating animal and plant diseases such as African swine fever.
"It also leaves our food and drink exporters jumping through the hoops of a full border check to get our produce into the EU while those sending their goods here from Europe continue to do so at a competitive advantage.
"This continuing asymmetric trade devalues any claims lauding the Trade and Cooperation Agreement by the UK government," he warned.
