|
|
At Provender wholesale plant nursery in Swanley, Kent, employees are unloading the first lorry load of goods into a newly-fitted, large biosecure barn established to carry out checks on products arriving from Europe. Dysfunction in the post-Brexit border system is prompting a growing number of UK plant and food traders to try to set up their own “control points” where products can be inspected, as an alternative to state-run facilities.
The move is an attempt to lower costs and reduce friction in trade with the EU, while side stepping the delays that have beset the government-run inspection point in nearby Sevington. “The way it’s going is we’re losing all control,” said Stuart Tickner, head of the nursery and biosecurity at Provender. “By becoming a control point, we bring some of that aspect of control back to us,” Tickner added.
Issues at the Sevington site, problems with the border IT systems and the slow roll out of a promised trusted trader programme, have piled pressure on businesses both sides of the border, leading some suppliers to give up exporting to the UK all together. The trusted trader programme, also known as the Authorised Operator Status was designed to test the possibility of allowing regular importers to carry out checks at their own sites, rather than at a border control post. Stuart Tickner checks plants that have been imported from the EU and have cleared their customs checks
The new post-Brexit border checks on food and plant imports from the EU were introduced in April by the previous Conservative government after several delays...
more at FT