Solution for Irish Sea sheep trade

An agreement has been reached which will allow sheep to move from Britain to NI again.

The EU and UK have decided that flocks in Britain which are registered under a new “qualifying status” for scrapie monitoring will be allowed to export sheep to NI.

The new status has been described as a “limited derogation” to existing EU trade regulations.

Due to the NI protocol part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, all sheep entering NI from Britain since 1 January 2021 have had to be certified as scrapie monitored.

In the past, around 9,000 mainly Blackface sheep were purchased in Scotland each year by NI buyers, but the protocol effectively stopped this trade as very few flocks are scrapie monitored.

It takes three years on the programme for a flock to receive “controlled risk” status for scrapie, and it takes seven years to be listed as “negligible risk”.

However, flock owners in Britain who register for scrapie monitoring before 31 December 2021 will immediately receive the new qualifying status and this will allow them to export sheep to NI.

But requirements under qualifying status are strict and it remains to be seen how many flock owners in Britain will sign up to the programme so that they can do business with buyers from NI.

For example, during the initial three-year period after receiving qualifying status, the flock can only buy in or be in contact with sheep that are part of qualifying, controlled risk, or negligible risk status flocks

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