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.
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.
Provender said it hoped to reduce costs for its customers by establishing its own control point and cutting the common user charge (CUC) which companies say is hammering the sector.
However building it was a “high risk strategy” given confusion over the timing of the government’s border implementation plan.
Until a trusted trader scheme is fully implemented, the nursery must use government inspectors to carry out physical checks on arriving goods.
The industry has long argued that traders should be allowed to carry out their own inspections because many already had the expertise needed to meet specifications on fruits, vegetables and plants.
Nigel Jenney, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium, said traders were being forced to pay millions in charges despite the industry having the infrastructure and personnel needed to carry out controls.
“They should have used the industry’s facilities and expertise that already existed and we would have readily shared it,” he said. “It’s a problem of their own making.”
Seafrigo, a refrigerated food logistics company, was the first group to enrol in the pilot scheme and set up a designated inspection point.
Mike Parr, chief executive of PML Seafrigo UK and Ireland, said the scheme was crucial to ensuring the flow of food into the UK.
But a decision on whether to take it beyond pilot stage had been “pushed down the road” since the idea was first tabled three years ago, he noted.
Businesses like Seafrigo have invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in building capacity on their own premises but cannot get enough trade coming through to recoup those costs because the government does not provide enough inspectors. Those who do come are unavailable overnight.
“It’s the only way that bringing fruit and vegetables into the UK is going to work. Sevington is too expensive and too slow,” Parr said, adding he heard regularly that hauliers were offered no facilities at the site. “If they come to us, we have everything in place for them.”
Currently 12 consignments of plants are held up at Sevington, many of which have been there for over a week, according to three people familiar with the situation.
No one in the supply chain was informed of the reason for the delays, according to the Horticultural Trades Association. By the time they were told the issues stemmed from an outbreak of pests in Italy, more shipments had arrived.
“We have made it clear that delays like this with no communication are completely unacceptable. They must ensure that the industry has detailed and timely communication in the future,” the trade group said.
“Drivers don’t want to come to the UK any more, they’ve had enough,” said one customs agent who asked not to be named, describing “inhumane conditions” for drivers at Sevington, who have to wait for hours in a small room, only provided with a bottle of water while their goods await inspection.
Some in the industry are pinning their hopes on the government agreeing a “veterinary deal” with Brussels that could reduce or remove the need for inspections and paperwork on most plant and animal exports.
A deal could take years to agree and implement, however, and in the meantime the UK’s reputation as a trading partner has been damaged, the sector warned.
Marco Forgione, director-general at the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, said the group had heard from many businesses in the EU who were preparing to stop trading with the UK, because of the increasing costs and uncertainty.
“The true cost of BTOM [Border Target Operating Model] for traders is only just beginning to materialise and will impact the cost of living over the winter months with price increases being passed on to the consumer,” he said, adding that the government should “further assess” the feasibility of the trusted trader pilot.
While moving controls away from the border to the premises of a trusted trader could cut waiting times and improve biosecurity, it would not fix some fundamental flaws in the border system, traders said.
These included a lack of communication from the government on why some goods are flagged for checks and others not.
“There still could be delays, but at least the plants will be an environment where they are cared for,” said Richard McKenna, Provender’s managing director.
The government said: “[It is] committed to reducing barriers to trade and cutting red tape by striking a fair balance between business and biosecurity.
“We are piloting a trusted trader approach — the Authorised Operator Status — and full implementation will depend on the outcome of this pilot.”
