NFU Warns New Import Checks “Pose Existential Threat”
26 January 2024
The UK’s biggest faming body is working that fruit and flower growers face a threat that is “existential”, from new border checks.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) expects this change, which will see imports of nearly all young plants being checked at the border from 30 April 2024, to lead to long delays, and plants being damaged or needing to be destroyed as a result, damaging business and potentially affecting next year’s crops.
The chair of the NFU’s horticulture and potatoes board, Martin Emmett, whose own company Farplants grows about £20m of product and imports about half the plants it grows each year, told the Guardian, “Having unusable deliveries is what terrifies growers, and any unnecessary delays could result in stock destruction, and that ultimately impacts on businesses in the most profound way imaginable”.
Most soft fruit plants, as well as significant numbers of tomato plants, nursery plants and fruit trees are imported to the UK from European countries.
At present, imported plants are held in controlled conditions at the destination nursery or farm, where they are inspected before being released. Under the new Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) rules, 100% of “high risk” consignments will be checked at the UK border. Nearly all young plants are considered to be “high risk”. Growers are concerned that the border posts may not be able to cope with the volume of checks required.
Questions remain over whether the checks, which are intended to improve biosecurity, will actually do so, because different species of plants will be unloaded at the same border posts, introducing a new point in the process where infection or pests might potentially be introduced.
Earlier this month, flower sellers represented by the VGB association of Dutch floricultural products also called for the implementation of checks to be delayed further.
A spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We have introduced these new import controls in phases to support businesses and ensure efficient trade of plants is maintained between the EU and Great Britain.
“The current ‘places of destination’ scheme was always designed to be a temporary measure until inspections commenced at border control posts.
“The controls that the new model introduces play a vital role in keeping the UK safe, protecting our food supply chains and farming sector from damaging disease outbreaks.”
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