Two thirds of GB retailers plan to stop selling to Northern Ireland by April because of Irish Sea border, survey finds

A survey of 1,000 GB retailers has found that almost two thirds of them plan to stop selling to Northern Ireland within two months because of the Irish Sea border.

As UK and EU politicians meet today to discuss the new trade frontier, the company behind the research said that many firms had “reached the precipice and are now having to make a final decision as to whether trading into Northern Ireland is feasible since the creation of the Irish Sea Border post Brexit”.

The survey was not carried out by a polling company but by iakoe, an e-commerce marketing firm with offices in Edinburgh and Belfast, and was conducted from January 4 until last week.

That could mean that some of those who responded to the questions at the start of January, when disruption and confusion was at its worst, may have changed their minds.

However, iakoe told the News Letter that it had spoken to 70% of those surveyed since the research ended to confirm that their response still stood.

The results follow widespread anecdotal evidence of GB companies which previously traded with Northern Ireland now refusing to sell across the Irish Sea.

Indeed, an increasing number of companies now find that they are banned from selling their products to Northern Ireland – regardless of what people are prepared to pay for the item.

Garden centres are banned from selling anything which contains British soil – even if it is only a few particles on a bare root tree – and from June many British meat products such as sausages and pies will be banned from Northern Ireland.

The survey also found that 42% of firms had seen orders cancelled after being forced to increase their prices to Northern Irish customers to cover new administration and customs charges as a result of the Irish Sea border.

However, 68% of respondents expressed optimism that the worst of the new border was now past.

Today the UK-EU Joint Committee which oversees the Northern Ireland Protocol will meet to discuss how it is working. An agenda for the meeting, which was published yesterday by the government, gives little away about what exactly will be discussed.