Britain has delayed post-Brexit plant-health checks on fruit and vegetables from the European Union for a fourth time, extending an exemption that was due to lapse on 31 January 2027 to 31 January 2028, in anticipation that a sanitary deal with Brussels.

The easement, confirmed in a notice from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), exempts medium-risk fruit and vegetables imported into Great Britain from the EU, Switzerland and Liechtenstein from plant-health checks — the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) inspections that are the physical border cost of leaving the single market.

Defra said the checks would not be required under the EU-UK SPS Agreement it is negotiating, and extended the easement in line with the proposed end of the Transitional Staging Period, the period of eased post-Brexit controls on EU imports, on 31 January 2028.

[explore reporter="uk" products="08" view="chart" chartType="market" currency="GBP" years="2025" time="2025" title="Where Britain's imported fruit comes from, 2025" subtitle="UK imports of fruit and nuts (HS 08) by supplier, share of £6.3bn by value. EU members supplied 35%; Spain leads, South Africa second"]

The government said it still expects businesses to see the agreement's benefits in 2027.

The EU supplied just under half of the £10.4bn (about $13.7bn) of fruit, nuts and vegetables Britain imported in 2025, and close to three-quarters of its vegetables, according to HMRC customs data. The dependence makes the checks a recurring cost question for importers and retailers.

[explore reporter="uk" products="07" view="chart" chartType="market" currency="GBP" years="2025" time="2025" title="Where Britain's imported vegetables come from, 2025" subtitle="UK imports of vegetables (HS 07) by supplier, share of £4.1bn by value. EU members supplied 73%, led by Spain and the Netherlands"]

The same controls have now been deferred four times since the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), the UK's post-Brexit import regime, began phasing in during 2024.

The medium-risk fruit and vegetable easement was first meant to end in January 2025, then July 2025, then January 2027.

When it last extended the easement, in June 2025, the government said risk-based surveillance would continue to manage the biosecurity risks of these products.

The deferrals track a policy the government has called a dividend of closer ties with Brussels.

Announcing the previous extension in June 2025, Biosecurity Minister Baroness Hayman of Ullock said the government's EU deal would "make food cheaper, slash bureaucracy and remove cumbersome border controls for businesses."