Popular Christmas plants and cut flowers from Europe such as poinsettia will likely cost more this holiday as they face Brexit border controls for the first time.
Some of the UK’s most popular festive goods such as poinsettia, a traditional Christmas gift, are now considered high-risk under the government’s new post-Brexit regime.
The red flower is among an array of plant and animal products from the European Union which now need costly customs and health certification paperwork to enter the UK.
They are also subject to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks at Britain’s borders.
The fresh produce sector has warned the added red tape and border controls could impact both availability and prices this festive season.
“All the plants and cut flowers trading from Europe are now subject to border checks that they weren’t last year, so it’s a fundamental change,” said Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) chief Nigel Jenney.
“The house plant poinsettia is absolutely a Christmas product, but really this affects a whole gift sector – any plants or cut flowers people may want to buy as gifts for relatives or friends will now be subject to inspections and potential delays that they weren’t last Christmas.”
The UK poinsettia crop - a host for the agricultural pest Bemisia Tabaci - has also been “decimated”, said Veryan Bliss, managing director of Food Intelligence, contributing to reduced availability and higher demand for costly imports.
Jenney said it was “too early” to assess the full impact on volumes, but that “certainly the industry will be charged more”.
He also warned that, whilst most fruit & veg from the EU was currently under an easement that allowed them to bypass checks until July 2025, that was not the case for many popular imports from northern Africa.
Jenney highlighted “a wide range of different salads, tomatoes, and soft fruits like strawberries that come from Morocco and Egypt”, which have been subject to post-Brexit border controls since April.
But with demand set to increase substantially over the peak holiday season, the industry fears the added pressure on border authorities will ultimately lead to delays and availability issues.
Jenney expects the number of lorries bringing fresh produce and cut flowers into the UK to “at least double” in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
He said: “Those countries that are substantial fresh produce suppliers through the winter, and particularly now and up till Christmas, are caught in the malaise of the border, which is not functioning well already, so that increased pressure will sadly only make it worse.”
The FPC’s warnings came after a Danish Christmas tree wholesaler told The Guardian that nearly all Christmas trees will also now require customs declarations and phytosanitary certificates to be able to enter the UK this year.
These too were likely to go up in price both for importers and, ultimately, consumers.
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