Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the EU legislation imposed on hop merchants regarding the re-export of third country hops.

Having left the EU, hops and hop products exported from GB to the EU now require an accompanying Attestation of Equivalence issued by an agency authorised and listed in Annex I of EC Regulation 1295/2008. Defra worked hard to ensure that the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) were listed in that regulation from 1 January 2021. We were successful in that listing. This means hops and hop products grown and processed in GB can continue to be exported to the EU so long as they are accompanied by an Attestation of Equivalence issued by the RPA.

EU Regulations require that the RPA can only issue Attestations of Equivalence for hops and hop products that were grown, or had their final processing, in GB. For now, the RPA are not able to issue an Attestation of Equivalence for hops or hop products imported from EU or the rest of the world which have not undergone any further processing.

Defra appreciate the concern that the inability to re-export third country hops and hop products to the EU is causing for hop merchants. Defra has raised the issue with the European Commission. We will inform stakeholders at the earliest opportunity if the position changes.