Sainsbury's concern over Brexit impact on NI food

The range of meat, fish and dairy products in Sainsbury's could be reduced due to Brexit, according to its chief executive.

Simon Roberts made the comments to the Guardian.

From 1 January, Northern Ireland will stay in the EU single market for goods but the rest of the UK will leave.

That means a proportion of food products arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain will need to be checked.

The EU has strict rules on products of animal origin: meat, milk, fish and eggs.

These products must enter through a border control post where paperwork is checked and a proportion of goods are physically inspected.

All these products must also have an export health certificate, an expensive piece of administration.

This could add substantial costs to every trailer load of supermarket goods.

The UK government is pressing the EU to show maximum flexibility on this issue, but nothing has yet been agreed.

Mr Roberts told The Guardian: '"If we don't get greater clarity on the Northern Irish situation then we will see a restriction on the ranges of products we can sell.

'This is not one or two products in stores I am talking about, it is a substantial number of products and quite key, everyday products too.

'Customers expect to have access to a full range but [it] won't be possible to make that available unless something changes.'

The BBC has contacted Sainsbury's for further comment.