Wednesday, February 03, 2021
More Brexit victims
It is still only just undr five weeks since we officially left the single market and still examples of red tape and barriers to business and free trade flood in via news streams and social media.
The latest in the Independent, is a report that a leading British cheese company has said it can no longer sell barrels of cheese directly to consumers in the EU because of Brexit red tape – forcing it to consider setting up in France:
The Cheshire Cheese company sold £180,000 worth of truckles, the traditional name for cheese shaped like a barrel, to countries across Europe last year.
However, managing director Simon Spurrell says that is no longer possible because of the huge additional costs now involved in shipments.
The company found that sending specialist cheeses worth around £25 to EU customers requires a health certificate, signed off by a vet, that costs £180 pounds per consignment.
“That [market] is completely gone. At the moment we’ve had to just switch that light out,” said Mr Spurrell on his orders from the EU.
The company has now put on hold plans for a £1m pound new distribution centre in Macclesfield. Mr Spurrell told Reuters he is considering setting up a new hub in France, where it can still ship on a wholesale basis.
Prior to Brexit, the company had invested in multi-lingual websites which helped EU online sales jump last year. The firm had forecast a 40 per cent rise this year.
Mr Spurrell thinks that the lack of an exemption from costly certificates for direct consumer sales was an oversight in Boris Johnson’s Brexit trade agreement, as negotiators rushed to seal the deal at the end of 2020.
Meanwhile over at the Guardian it appears that it is DEFRA, who are being particularly difficult in their interpretation of the rules, to prevent a beekeeper from bringing 15 million bees into the UK. Patrick Murfet says he has been told they may be seized and burned because of post-Brexit laws.
Since the end of the transition period, only queen bees can be imported into Great Britain, rather than colonies and packages of bees. However, confusion over whether bees can be brought in via Northern Ireland has caused a legal headache:
Murfet said he had already paid a deposit of about £20,000 for the bees and stood to lose nearly £100,000 in costs alone if he cannot bring them into the country.
He added: “So far the department has overseen a policy whereby the UK is only one of three countries in Europe to see a decline in bee colonies.Fewer honeybees means less pollination, less top fruits and more imports.”
Anybody would think the UK Government is actually trying to hasten the decline of bees and hasten the sort of ecological disaster that would arise as a result.
The latest in the Independent, is a report that a leading British cheese company has said it can no longer sell barrels of cheese directly to consumers in the EU because of Brexit red tape – forcing it to consider setting up in France:
The Cheshire Cheese company sold £180,000 worth of truckles, the traditional name for cheese shaped like a barrel, to countries across Europe last year.
However, managing director Simon Spurrell says that is no longer possible because of the huge additional costs now involved in shipments.
The company found that sending specialist cheeses worth around £25 to EU customers requires a health certificate, signed off by a vet, that costs £180 pounds per consignment.
“That [market] is completely gone. At the moment we’ve had to just switch that light out,” said Mr Spurrell on his orders from the EU.
The company has now put on hold plans for a £1m pound new distribution centre in Macclesfield. Mr Spurrell told Reuters he is considering setting up a new hub in France, where it can still ship on a wholesale basis.
Prior to Brexit, the company had invested in multi-lingual websites which helped EU online sales jump last year. The firm had forecast a 40 per cent rise this year.
Mr Spurrell thinks that the lack of an exemption from costly certificates for direct consumer sales was an oversight in Boris Johnson’s Brexit trade agreement, as negotiators rushed to seal the deal at the end of 2020.
Meanwhile over at the Guardian it appears that it is DEFRA, who are being particularly difficult in their interpretation of the rules, to prevent a beekeeper from bringing 15 million bees into the UK. Patrick Murfet says he has been told they may be seized and burned because of post-Brexit laws.
Since the end of the transition period, only queen bees can be imported into Great Britain, rather than colonies and packages of bees. However, confusion over whether bees can be brought in via Northern Ireland has caused a legal headache:
Murfet said he had already paid a deposit of about £20,000 for the bees and stood to lose nearly £100,000 in costs alone if he cannot bring them into the country.
He added: “So far the department has overseen a policy whereby the UK is only one of three countries in Europe to see a decline in bee colonies.Fewer honeybees means less pollination, less top fruits and more imports.”
Anybody would think the UK Government is actually trying to hasten the decline of bees and hasten the sort of ecological disaster that would arise as a result.
