Plant importers say border delays in Kent could drive up prices and stop deliveries from EU | Brexit

Plant importers say long delays and damage to shipments at Kent border control risk rising prices and could lead shipping companies to halt deliveries across the Channel.

Traders have reported long waits in recent weeks at the government’s Sevington facility, off the M20 near Ashford, built to check goods of plant and animal origin arriving from the EU. One importer said delays added costs of £200 to each load.

During the inspection, warnings are also made that trees and bushes were repeatedly damaged while being unloaded and loaded onto trucks.

Since Brexit, deliveries of animal and plant products between Britain and the EU have required paperwork and been subject to strict inspections at the border as part of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks.

All plant products rated as high or medium risk, including bedding plants, cut flowers and bark, are inspected with controls aimed at improving the UK’s biosecurity and preventing harmful plant and animal diseases from entering the country.

But some traders said they encountered significant problems during border checks in Sevington, including trucks being stuck there for several days before being released.

A recent shipment of olive trees from a nursery in Pistoia, Italy, to Premier Plants near Chelmsford in Essex was delayed for five days, according to company co-founder Karl Clark.

“This situation is frustrating and adds cost. We have been importing plants from Italy for over 20 years and had never encountered such problems before Brexit,” Clark said.

John Davidson, finance director at Tom Brown Wholesale, which delivers daily cut flowers and plants from the Netherlands to the UK via Sevington, said delays at the border post were “in waves”.

“Three weeks ago we had three delays in a row, but the next week was fine,” he said. “A delay of an hour or two could actually take us back to work.”

The latest delays at Sevington come at a time when plant imports are busy, following a lull in the hot summer months when larger shrubs and trees tend not to be exported from the EU.

Premier Plants, which supplies landscape designers, developers and local councils, said repeated delays at the border risked making the company unreliable and also increasing costs. Clark estimates the delays will add an extra £200 to each load, on top of shipping costs and administrative costs.

“Fortunately, the delays aren’t too catastrophic this time of year, but you can imagine what it’s like in the summer; the plants will either cook or dry out,” Clark said.

Marco Innocenti’s family-run nursery in Tuscany is one of Premier Plants’ suppliers and delivers twice a week to the UK.

When one of its last shipments arrived at customers after inspection in Sevington, some of the potted plants inside the truck were upside down and others had broken branches. Innocenti called it “unacceptable” and said the damage was caused by “careless unloading and reloading” of the truck.

“We can’t continue like this,” he said. “The authorities need to understand the seriousness of this issue.”

The operating cost of Sevington checkpoint is £23 million per year. According to the government’s estimate for the last financial year. Companies importing goods subject to SPS controls must pay a “common user fee” to use the facility; this charge is capped at £29 for each type in a consignment and £145 for each delivery, whether checked or not.

Following construction, the facility was described as a “white elephant” and remained unused for a period after the UK repeatedly delayed the introduction of physical checks on plant and animal products from the EU.

But these finally started in April 2024 and traders have reported a significant increase in items requiring inspection in recent months since Keir Starmer announced the “reset” deal with the EU.

Industry body Horticultural Trade Association (HTA) and many plant traders say an SPS deal with the EU that could eliminate the need for border checks as part of the “reset” cannot come soon enough, but it may not be implemented until 2027.

“The last few weeks have not been good in Sevington,” one logistics company told the Guardian. “Some companies are struggling with costs and damage. In the end, some exporters may say ‘sorry, we gave up on England’.”

Outsourcing firm Sodexo has been awarded a £184.5 million contract by the government to manage Sevington on behalf of HM Revenue and Customs for three years from July 2023, and is also responsible for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) border checkpoints in the area.

Switzerland-based logistics company Kuehne + Nagel carries out vehicle inspection in Sevington within the scope of the agreement with Sodexo. Kuehne + Nagel and Sodexo did not respond to requests for comment.

The Guardian understands the government is reviewing its procedures at border checkpoints. The government is also understood to have claimed that any complaints about damage will be investigated and the trader will be responded to as quickly as possible.

A government spokesman said: “Protecting UK biosecurity remains one of our key priorities. We are working with border control posts to ensure they operate effectively, and with traders to ensure checks are completed efficiently, quickly and without significant delays.”

“We are focused on negotiating an SPS agreement that could contribute up to £5.1bn a year to our economy by lowering costs and reducing red tape for British manufacturers and retailers.”