Two of the borough’s longest-serving flower sellers say they are struggling with massive price hikes post-Brexit. John Atkins, who runs the stall in Pond Street, South End Green, and Harry Patel, who runs Harry’s Flowers in Fitzjohn’s Avenue, Hampstead, spoke about how leaving the EU has impacted their businesses.
Both have run stalls for more than 30 years and like the vast majority of traders in the UK, they order flowers from Holland. Since Brexit, new “flower passports” have been introduced and there is extra paperwork – and costs – for importers. It means popular stems are selling at “unheard of” prices – with tulips going for £10 a bunch.
Mr. Atkins said: “I’ve told them boys in Holland when they have sensible prices to give me a call. They are saying it’s Brexit and the paperwork. But I can’t charge my customers those sort of prices, out of respect to them I won’t do it. “The way it is now, tulips, for 10 stems – it would be a tenner a bunch. Normally they’re a fiver… £19.50 for lilies, £10 for roses.”
Mr. Atkins said British traders bought from Holland because they had the best flowers but the long-standing import infrastructure was being destroyed by the new regulations post-Brexit. He said the big chain supermarkets could easily absorb any extra cost of buying European flowers, adding: “I voted Remain. For me personally, they screwed this up because of a lot of stupid opinions about things.
Mr. Patel, who started selling flowers aged 13, took over the Fitzjohn’s Avenue fountain plot when there was a newspaper stand there. Now aged 58 and having run the current stall for 35 years, he said: “For me now it’s 30-40 percent more at least. The people in Holland are telling me they’ve never heard of tulips being so expensive. Ten pounds for a bunch? It’s unheard of. “
It’s hard enough at the moment with the ULEZ [Ultra Low Emission Zone] and that there’s no one really in the West End. Most of my business is men coming back from work or the shops and picking up flowers for their wives.”
On the issue of using UK grown alternatives, he said big business had killed off the English flower growing industry and what remained had been cornered by chain supermarkets. “What happened was most of the land used by the English flower growers got bought up by property developers, gradually they disappeared – now this is happening in Holland too,” said Mr. Patel.
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