As of April, the new post-Brexit border checks on flowers, plants, and food will come in and it is still raising concerns in the industry. Particularly the Dutch growers are expressing their concerns. Lately, the VGB, the Dutch association of wholesalers in floricultural products, has written to the UK government warning it of “significant concerns” about industry readiness for the changes, saying they will disrupt on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, the peak season for the sector (Click here to read the article)
Yesterday, the director of VGB, Matthijs Mesken was on a Dutch talk show with London-based reporter Lia van Bekhoven, raising their concerns. Traffic jams, delays extra costs, products that will inevitably increase in price, and the extra risk of product loss are expected.
Annually, around 20,000 containers with flowers and plants are shipped out of the Netherlands to the UK. These will soon all be subject to the extra checks, and can therefore no longer be checked at their destination, as is often the case with woody plants. Moreover, carrying out the same inspection multiple times results in duplicate, unnecessary bureaucracy.
See here the recording of the talk show (In Dutch). This topic is discussed at 32:20.