British fresh produce importers have unanimously voted to be allowed to carry out their own post-Brexit border checks in a meeting with government representatives, The Grocer can reveal.
The Fresh Produce Consortium last week hosted a session with Defra to discuss recently proposed increases to plant health fees, which fruit & veg importers must pay to get their goods through border controls.
Traders are facing an increase in costs of around £10m a year after Defra’s Animal & Plant Health Agency proposed an amendment to up its import fees, which have been frozen since 2019, by 27%.
The new plant health charges – which are intended to recoup the costs of carrying out border checks – are set to roll out at all UK points of entry from autumn 2025 if approved, APHA said.
However, importers have told government representatives that they are unanimously in favour of the Approved Operator Scheme (AOS), a solution to the post-Brexit border checks on EU goods, which allows them to carry out their own physical and document checks at their own approved facilities – therefore reducing government-imposed border control costs and easing trade flows at Britain’s busier points of entry.
The AOS was piloted by some traders in the second half of last year, with post-trial evaluation scheduled between December 2024 and February 2025.
Read more: Fruit & veg set to become pricier due to new border fees
However, the government has yet to update businesses on the future of the scheme, with many early adopters like logistics giant PML Seafrigo still waiting to take part in the trials.
The company “invested in this training as far back as 2023”, according to CEO Mike Parr.
“Early adopters of the scheme such as PML Seafrigo will have waited for over two years post-training for the scheme to be rolled out, which seems an excessively long period, given the evaluation of the pilot is only allocated three months,” Parr said.
“Whilst the room voted a resounding yes to the AOS, the final decision will of course be with the ministerial team.
“Let’s just hope that this time around, they do actually listen to those working at the coalface and that this is not yet another example of the government simply paying lip service.”
FPC CEO Nigel Jenney said the meeting provided a direct platform for fresh produce traders that rely on EU goods – which make up around half of all fruit & vegetables consumed in the UK – to “raise concerns face-to-face with policymakers”.
“The planned cost increases are substantial, which raises considerable concern to industry and consumers. The increases are simply unaffordable, especially when it’s clear the service consistently fails to offer an efficient and customer-focused service,” he said, noting widespread reports of mishandling of consignments by plant health authorities and frequent delivery delays at the UK’s borders.
“Yet the costs continue to spiral out of control”, he added. “Make no mistake, we are wasting millions annually.”
Read more: UK vegetable growing sector ‘in jeopardy’ due to post-Brexit border checks
The FPC emphasised that traders were ready to carry out their own checks, which would “radically change the inspection approach in ways that can improve biosecurity and significantly reduce costs for both the industry and consumers”.
“We remain committed to assist Defra to secure effective solutions urgently. However, it’s time for radical change as the historical approach is unaffordable and simply penalises responsible companies who diligently follow the rules at unaffordable cost.”
Importers of fruit & veg, which are set to face new physical checks in July this year as part of the government’s post-Brexit border strategy, also highlighted concerns that there were currently no “adequate out-of-hours inspection services by officials” – an “essential” need for those bringing in perishable goods overnight to fill supermarket shelves in the morning.
They advocated for that support to be in place ahead of the introduction of border inspections on EU fresh produce later this year.
In addition to PML Seafrigo and Defra, other meeting attendees included FPC Members Tom Brown Wholesale, Morgan Cargo and Jane Adams Flowers.
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