The least expected effect of the Brexit was that flower exporters would need to learn Latin.
This is one of the issues that British business faced in the first few weeks after the government implemented physical checks on certain food and plants imported from the EU.
The traders said that they had to face far more checks than what they had been told would be done. In some cases, lorries were held for several hours before they could proceed without inspection.
Long waits are a major problem for the flower industry, which depends on timely imports of flowers from the Netherlands.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told the industry it would check between 3% and 5 % of consignments that contained “medium-risk products” such as cut flower.
Defra claimed to have met this target on Saturday. However, some flower wholesalers reported that every one of their lorries was stopped for inspection and customers missed their deliveries as their flowers were stuck in the new £147m facility in Sevington, Kent.
Unidentified customs brokers said that they thought they faced checks on more than 3% their consignments.
Some importers have also had difficulty with the new Ipaffs computer system (Importation of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System), because certain plant and flower names are missing. A decision to refer them to their Latin names caused confusion for importers.
Freddie Heathcote is the owner of Green and Bloom a wholesaler of flowers and plants. He said that every one of his trucks was flagged to be inspected. His driver was at the border post in Sevington, at Sevington, at 11pm on Wednesday.
Heathcote stated that Heathcote had told Heathcote to wait in the same place. He sat for seven and a half hours without his truck being opened. He was then told that he could depart at 7.10am.
“We sent out 50 wholesale orders on Thursday but none arrived.”
We were unable to serve those customers.
Around 80% of the flowers sold in Britain come from the Netherlands. The flowers are auctioned in the morning and then transported by ferry between noon and 4:00pm. Prior to Brexit, the goods would be delivered overnight to UK wholesalers, and shipped to the customers within 24 hours.
Exporters must now fill out Dutch export paperwork as well as British import paperwork in order to embark. Any delays could mean that they miss the ferry. The new checks began on 30 April. Some are supposed to be checked by officials in Sevington. Delays there prevent them from reaching the UK’s largest flower market, New Covent Garden Market.
Johan Heemskerk is the co-founder and owner of Klahee Flowers. He said that his customers depended on him to deliver orders in a timely manner for funerals and weddings. Their longest delay was nine hours. He said that the new inspections were causing delays for both him and his customers.
“A delay greater than nine hours could mean that flowers are delivered too late to a wedding with all of the consequences this entails.”
John Davidson is the co-owner and board member of Tom Brown Wholesale. He also serves on the British Florist Association. He said that initially only one truck had been flagged to be checked at Sevington. “However mid-journey, all of them were sent a text message and an email that directed them to Sevington.”
The administration told the drivers that they didn’t know why the status was changed, and blamed a technical mistake. After a small delay, the trucks were able to progress. Things improved by the end of the day, he said.
Ian Shuttlewood, director of PML Seafrigo – a company that specializes in customs and logistics – said the new checks were difficult for the floral industry. According to what we hear, there were slightly more flower inspections than expected. Many of the large nurseries were able to conduct checks on their own premises. They’re no longer allowed to do that.
He said that Defra officials were working hard to ensure the Ipaffs worked, but that there were still problems. “You have to use the Latin names which is a nightmare for someone who has never studied Latin,” he added.
You have cheat sheets that will tell you what the Latin name is for blueberries. There are many things missing from the system. We had to declare things as chrysanthemums, instead of roses, or whatever – because they weren’t there. They said that trucks cannot be parked for nine hours and miss the entire distribution. It directly costs the industry an enormous amount of money. Flowers have a short shelf life.
Defra stated that there were a few cases in which technical or information errors by businesses resulted longer clearance times. It stated that it had engaged with companies to ensure accurate data input and was working closely alongside industry.
It stated: “There is no truth to the claims of disruptions caused by new checks. Our teams have worked closely with traders to complete checks efficiently and quickly.
We continue to work closely with traders to make sure all their paperwork is correctly filled in before they start their journey.