22 January 2024

Guardian: New Brexit checks ‘pose existential threat’ to UK fruit and flower growers

The UK’s fruit and flower growers face an “existential threat” from new post-Brexit border checks that could damage business and affect next year’s crops, the country’s biggest farming body has said.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) warned that changes to import rules in April, which will impose checks at the border for nearly all young plants coming into the country, could cause long delays and result in plants being damaged or destroyed.

Martin Emmett, the NFU’s chair of the horticulture and potatoes board, said: “There is a concern that border control points can pose an existential threat to horticultural businesses in this country.”

 

Dutch flower growers call for delays to UK post-Brexit border checks

 

Emmett, whose company Farplants grows about £20m of product, with just over half starting life in the EU, said: “Having unusable deliveries is what terrifies growers, and any unnecessary delays could result in stock destruction, and that ultimately impacts on businesses in the most profound way imaginable.”

UK growers are reliant on the EU for young plants that start life in countries such as the Netherlands before being imported into the UK for planting.

Most soft fruit plants, including strawberries and raspberries, are imported as young plants, while significant numbers of tomatoes, fruit trees and nursery plants also start life in European countries equipped with large greenhouses and better conditions....

 more at Guardian

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