M&S Food managing director Alex Freudmann has hit out at the “painfully slow” movement of food across the Irish Sea, five years after Brexit.

Writing ahead of upcoming cross-sea deliveries, Freudmann said M&S lorries to Ireland are now delayed by Brexit paperwork and red tape, with one trailer now requiring over 200 documents – including information as “niche” as the Latin name of the chicken in a sandwich.

“Tonight our trucks travelling to the Republic of Ireland were loaded yesterday and sat idle for 16 hours before the driver set off, now armed with over 200 pieces of paper,” said Freudmann.

Despite running 39 stores and employing over 4,000 people across Ireland and Northern Ireland, the high street retailer says products are being held back, with items like sausages and some sandwiches no longer allowed to cross from the UK.

He also criticised the need for thousands of Export Health Certificates signed by vets, costing the businesses £1m a year and causing food waste and shelf gaps.

Calling for “the pace of actions, not just words, Freudmann urged the UK government to push ahead with a Veterinary agreement with he EU to cut the “bureacracy and cost” strangling trade.

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Freudmann said: “At M&S we have the highest standards in the industry for our food but the Brexit rules – constructed to deal with cross-sea container ships carrying long-life or frozen food – pay that no attention.

“They weren’t designed for modern supermarkets shipping thousands of individual products a relatively short distance across the Irish sea every day. Plus they were developed in a pre-digital era; relying on paper documents and physical checks and inspections.

“Today, almost everybody working in our depots is under the age of 50 and has grown up with computers. New starters at our depots look at us with bewilderment on day one when we have to ask them to pick up a pen and piece of paper to do the job.”

Taking to social media platform LinkedIn, the director described the policy as “pointless bureaucracy” and said a government veterinary agreement with the EU would reduce the “unnecessary” red tape that created “sloth-like speed” across Irish food supply chain.

He said M&S fully supported the government and was ready to help with negotiations. Fruedmann added: “Five years on, it is time to put an end to the Brexit bureaucracy that burdens both UK and Irish businesses.”