The NFU analysis found that exports in the year to July fell sharply compared with the same period in 2019, with sugar down 70%, poultry down 53%, and eggs and egg products sold to confectionery and baking industries down 65%. Full-year data from 2019 to 2025 showed an even deeper impact, with exports of eggs and egg products down 74%.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: "The EU is our largest trading partner for agri-food products, accounting for 68% of agri-food exports last year, but trade volumes have fallen over a third since 2019."
Food exporters have long complained about the paperwork introduced after Britain's exit from the bloc. All food exports now require customs documentation with different codes for every product, including each variation of an egg product, and health certification is needed for the paper pulp in egg cartons as well as the eggs themselves.
The horticultural sector has also been badly affected. Seed potatoes from Britain, mainly Scotland, were banned from the EU after negotiators failed to agree on equivalent standards in the 2020 trade and cooperation agreement. Horticultural exports fell more than 50%. Pre-Brexit, Scotland exported around 20,000 tonnes of seed potatoes, worth almost £11m, to Europe each year.
The figures come as Labour's Andy Burnham is reconsidering the party's red lines on EU membership under pressure to repair the economic damage of Brexit. Economists estimate the cost to the UK economy has been up to £240bn so far.
Speaking in parliament this week, Burnham said Brexit trade barriers meant "entire truckloads of plants or fresh product can be destroyed because of a single missing stamp or minor paperwork delay". He told MPs: "Our largest food export, Scottish salmon, faces a 100% rate of document checks at the border." He expressed hope of "landing a positive outcome" in upcoming UK-EU reset talks with a new agreement removing many of the sanitary and phytosanitary checks on fresh farm produce introduced after Brexit.