TWO weeks into post-Brexit life, it is starting to become clear how the new changes are affecting businesses in Northern Ireland (NI) with regards to trade, with additional administrative work and delays being some of the key issues raised.

The Impartial Reporter spoke to three Fermanagh-based businesses about how they have been impacted by the trade agreement that came into force on January 1, following the UK's exit from the EU.

Joe McGirr, founder of The Boatyard Distillery, said it’s "still early days" for the company to see Brexit's impact but, generally speaking, there is an "administration upheaval" going on at the minute, with a shift in the way they do things and operate.

He said: "We’re discouraged from purchasing any inbound goods from England at all, currently, as it’s easier and cheaper to purchase from either NI or parts of the EU."

Joe added that the company is missing out on a fair bit of sales business at the moment: "For example, Belfast International Airport, where we have a great relationship, is now at a disadvantage to Dublin.

"People are encouraged to travel to London and England and back from Dublin, as they get duty-free in Dublin, where in Belfast they wouldn’t.

"Some of our customer relationships are also at a disadvantage, for example, Amazon have now stopped all alcohol sales to NI, and other alcohol retailers are following suit."

However, Joe believes that this creates some advantages, as people in NI are encouraged to buy inside NI.

"We are encouraged even more than ever to purchase as many of our materials as possible from local suppliers. This will bring benefits not just to us and our partners, but to the whole NI economy.

"There are more positives and negatives to uncover over the coming weeks and months for The Boatyard Distillery. We have been very lucky to considerably grow our spirits business globally in the past 12 months, so we’re looking forward to the next 12 months with optimism despite the challenges," Joe told this newspaper.

Moving on, and engineering company Severfield (NI) had "undertaken a great deal of preparatory work" over the past number of years to ensure that the company was “Brexit-ready”.

A spokesperson for Severfield (NI) said: "This obviously included numerous contingency plans, given the uncertainties surrounding what form of deal may be brokered or, indeed, if a deal was to be agreed at all.

"We have worked closely with all of our suppliers and our hauliers to ensure that they were also in a position to continue to trade seamlessly from January 1, 2021, and to meet whatever requirements were imposed.

"Precautions were taken, and control systems put in place, and other than some additional administrative work, overall we do not see trade being impacted at all for the business,” added the Severfield (NI) spokesperson.

With more than 23,000 cross-Border commercial movements each year, Brexit was a major cause for concern for Balcas – one of the largest sawmills in the UK and Ireland, which has its headquarters in Co. Fermanagh.

A Balcas spokesperson explained that planning for Brexit had always been a challenge as it was "never quite clear" what Brexit would actually mean.

They said: "The greater number of the main obstacles were resolved, not by the recent trade deal, but by the NI Protocol, which was designed to ensure that the process of moving goods between NI and the Republic of Ireland (ROI) would remain largely unchanged," adding that the trade deal agreed on Christmas eve is "nonetheless welcome".

Balcas sources many machine parts and consumables from across the globe, including the EU. The trade deal should allow the company to have continued, tariff-free access to these stock items.

The Balcas spokesperson went on to explain that in the past year, lots of work was done at the company in preparing their business for Brexit – including procurement processes and related administration, haulage, HR, plant heath and IT arrangements.

"However, primary amongst the problems still unresolved, are shipments to Great Britain that transit through ROI.

"In advance of the end of the transition period on December 31 last, there was fulsome and constant assurance from the UK government that this matter would be dealt with through the Trader Support Service (TSS).

"Part of the Northern Ireland Protocol and, indeed, the Brexit negotiations was the protection of Northern Ireland’s unfettered access to the GB market.

"Since January 4, it has become apparent that this access was hindered by the TSS’s inability to support transit route declarations between NI and GB when using ROI ports," the spokesperson said, adding that the company are "really pleased" that the TSS team has responded with urgency, and that they were informed on January 11 that a "temporary workaround" has been put in place to overcome the problem.

"The temporary solution is too slow, in that it takes three days to process, but we will work with TSS to get this expedited.

"Of the 23,000 movements referred to above, approximately 5,000 trailers of goods transit through Dublin or Rosslare and there are simply no cost-effective alternatives through NI ports.

"Commercial third-party services to facilitate transit through Dublin/Rosslare without TSS currently have an annualised cost of up to £0.5m.

"Therefore, this is not an attractive alternative either," the Balcas spokesperson told this newspaper.