SPECIAL REPORT – Northern Ireland’s kosher meat crisis: ‘We’re clinging to existence’

The dramatic reduction in kosher food deliveries to Northern Ireland under the post-Brexit trade protocol is embarrassing and stressing its small Jewish community.

Over the years, the community had dwindled from a peak of around 1,500 people in the 1950s to fewer than a dozen families.

There has not been a kosher butcher in the UK jurisdiction for many years, so supplies are sourced from England.

From a pallet of chickens and deli products being delivered to the synagogue in north Belfast every couple of months, last year only three deliveries were received – in March, July and December.

Families have been finding it hard to make kosher food stretch and have had to borrow from each other.

Michael Black, chairman of the Belfast Jewish Community, said: “The problems started with the protocol, which the government signed. For us, all sorts of red tape and bureaucracy was introduced, and we got caught up in bigger issues. Even with the grace periods, it has been a problem. There is still paperwork. Our suppliers are small businesses. We are not a very big customer.

“Similarly, with the carrier. One pallet every eight or 10 weeks is not meaningful.

“Both the carrier and the suppliers wince when we make a phone call. It is not an attractive proposition to them.”

Black says the three deliveries that made it to Northern Ireland last year were a result of goodwill and pushiness from the community and government.

The minister to the Jewish community, Reverend David Kale, has been among those providing assistance, as has the UK government’s Northern Ireland Office, and Stormont’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

Black says the community has been “cutting back” since the supply issues and “communal meals aren’t happening because of the void”.

“People are eating less meat,” he explained. “It has been very embarrassing having to push this issue.

“As an Orthodox community, it is in our constitution, the provisions of kosher food. It is an obligation to have kosher food for the people who need it, who are very observant. I can live without it, but there are some people who need kosher food.”

Black says the prime minister is aware of the ongoing issues, and the community will continue to “rattle cages to raise the problem”.

Retired architect’s secretary Norma Simon says that “before Brexit there was no problem getting the meat from Manchester”.

The 91-year-old says the variety of kosher food is “not great at the moment”, and that at her day centre for older people she is now being given vegetarian meals.

“I was brought up in a traditional Jewish home. In those days, you went to the butchers every day. I was brought up in Dublin and there was three or four butchers, so you had your choice. I moved to Belfast in 1957. There were two butchers here, but they don’t exist now. As the Jewish population decreased, children went away and didn’t come back.”

Former retail manager Yvonne Danker said the kosher food supply issue has been “stressful”.

“We are an elderly community so it was affecting our day to day life trying to think up different meals. It has a very big impact on us.

“We have been borrowing a bit of chicken here and there from friend’s freezers. I tried a couple of vegetarian options, which didn’t go down well with my husband.

“The delivery in December was limited, with no processed meat like mince and sausages, but it came just in time.”

Her son Tony Danker, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in London, is a frequent visitor to 10 Downing Street, and has also “casually raised” the issue with the Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis and others.

“I think it is our right to have access to kosher food,” Yvonne said.

“What is happening should not happen. The Jewish community is clinging on to our existence.

“We also depend on meat for the synagogue so are hoping for a practical solution. It is a terrible situation to leave us in.”

Professor Katy Hayward, a Queen’s University Belfast academic and senior fellow with the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, acknowledges there is a problem but says there are solutions.

“It is happening because they need to now operate the rules of the protocol, of goods coming into NI from GB, as if they were a third country coming into the EU, so there is an awful lot of paperwork associated with that. Mostly with agri-food. “There is some relief available, but it only really makes sense for larger suppliers. It is much more difficult for smaller businesses.”

Hayward said the logical alternative from the EU perspective would be to source the meat from the Republic of Ireland. “There would be no problem there at all. How viable that is, is the next question. A consequence of Brexit and the protocol is the disruption of goods and supply chains. People are having to change providers. We have seen this over time with more sourcing from the EU.  There aren’t any exemptions that can made on the grounds of religious purposes. There are strict rules around meat products so there isn’t a possibility of an exemption. This is particularly the case because the UK is intending to diverge from the EU more over time.”

A UK government spokeswoman said: “It is unacceptable that the Jewish community continues to face challenges accessing kosher food and it demonstrates how the protocol is impacting the everyday lives of people across Northern Ireland.  This is why we continue to work urgently to resolve these issues in our intensive discussions with the EU.”

Geraldine McGahey, chief commissioner, Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, Michael Black, chair of the Belfast Jewish Community, and Alyson Kilpatrick, chief commissioner of the The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The UK government and EU have been urged to find an “urgent solution” over the shortages of kosher food in Northern Ireland.