British gardeners say new border controls will reduce choice and drive up costs

Featured Sponsor

Store	Link	Sample Product
UK Artful Impressions	Premiere Etsy Store

Plant and flower growers in the UK have warned that plans to introduce new post-Brexit border controls will hit the gardening sector, driving up costs and reducing choice for customers.

The Horticultural Trades Association has voiced its concerns after the government announced last month it allegedly introduced long-delayed customs controls on all EU goods into Britain, starting in October.

Speaking ahead of the opening of the annual Chelsea Flower Show, the premier international gardening event which starts on Monday, HTA chairman James Barnes said the government’s draft boundary plan would pile up unwanted costs to nurseries, most of which are small businesses.

“The government’s plan is not detailed enough, it is too late and has gaps that risk causing uncertainty and piling more costs on growers,” he said.

The introduction of border controls has been repeatedly delayed since the UK officially withdrew from the bloc on 31 January 2020, amid concerns it would create unacceptable backlogs at Channel ports and put pressure on food supplies.

The Cabinet Office said it was the government’s “firm intention” to start phasing out controls from October, but many industries expressed concern during the consultation over a lack of information, according to insiders.

The HTA said imports of plants, cuttings and tissue culture came to £759m last year, with the majority coming from Europe. Together these accounted for more than half of the UK sector’s total output of trees, plants, seeds and bulbs, worth over £1.5 billion a year.

Due to the risk of bringing pests into the country, the plants, unlike most other goods arriving from the EU after Brexit, have been subject to biosecurity checks since January 2021, but until now the checks have been carried out at the importers’ premises.

Under current government proposals, from January biosecurity checks will have to be conducted at official border checkpoints before customs clearance, resulting in higher costs and delays.

The HTA has estimated that the new controls will add £42 million a year in red tape to businesses, with no economic gain. He called on the government to delay introducing new controls for a year after the final border plan was published.

Bruce Harnett, the head of Kernock Park Plants nursery in Cornwall, which produces more than 13 million plants a year worth £30m at retail prices, said haulers were already warning it would be impractical. continue to import some items.

He explained that most of the trucks contained bundled shipments, for different types of plants and customers, with each taking around two hours to unload, even before British officials had conducted their inspections.

“We risk casualties, destruction and increased plant costs. Hauliers have already stated that, due to additional barriers, they simply won’t import the items we need,” Harnett told the government’s consultation on the new border arrangements.

Under plans, companies can apply to become an “internal border checkpoint,” but Harnett said the level of investment required was well beyond the budget of a company the size of Kernock Park Plants.

In a sign of these concerns, trade body Logistics UK released a statement warning ‘the urgent need for the Government to provide more details’ following a meeting last week with the Cabinet minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe to discuss plans.

An insider on the call said government officials insisted the industry had given a “universally positive response” to the draft border deal, angering many in attendance. “The commercial WhatsApp groups have been pretty angry,” the person added.

The government said it was confident its plans to introduce the new border controls would support businesses that import goods. “We have listened carefully to the feedback we have received from stakeholders and will carefully consider what more we can do to support business readiness for new controls to be introduced.”