Empey welcomes u-turn on food product imports

Ulster Unionist peer Lord Empey has said the UK government u-turn in the House of Commons on ensuring that imported food products could not be of a lesser standard in terms of environment and animal welfare than that produced in the UK is a victory for the agricultural community and for common-sense.

Lord Empey said: “I have lobbied the entire way through this Agriculture Bill at Westminster on this very matter and put down my own amendments. While the government opposed this until the very final stage, it is with relief to farmers and consumers alike that standards of the environmental and animal health imported food products will be required to be of at least a similar standard to that produced in the UK.

“It was shameful that there was potential for imported food products to be accepted in the UK that would be of a lesser quality standard than those produced by our farmers and processors.

“In Northern Ireland our farmers produce products to the very highest standard, which will often come at a significant financial cost to the individual producers and industry overall. It would have been outrageous to allow imported goods that could be produced much cheaper and of a lesser environmental and animal health and welfare standards to be imported to compete against our own excellent produce.

“This has finally been a good decision by the government, which I very much welcome.”