Burdensome post-Brexit ‘health checks’ on Christmas trees are set to ramp up costs this season, wholesalers are warning.
Under the new border system, plants from the European Union deemed high-risk, which include nearly all Christmas trees, are now subject to new checks which require inspections in the country of origin – known as a phytosanitary certificate – and British officials to be notified with the details before they can enter.
“We’ve gone from being able to trade between the EU and the UK without any paperwork apart from an invoice before [the UK left the single market], to having to have customs declarations and now phytosanitary certificates”, Kasper Kortegaard Graven, the managing director of Kortegaard, a Danish Christmas tree wholesaler, told The Guardian.
“You require all of this paperwork, and paperwork costs money. The checks cost money, that increases the cost of the product– and ultimately the consumer pays more,” he added.
According to the British Christmas Tree Growers Association (BCTGA), more than 8 million Christmas trees were sold in the UK in 2021, of which between 20 per cent and 40 per cent came from overseas.
Not only do these trees now require extra paperwork but for the first time they will be subject to checks at newly introduced border posts, set up near ports.
These checks require importers to not only pay an inspection charge, often regardless of whether the trees have been inspected, but also increase the chance of delays and damage to consignments.
Stephan Meijer, a Dutch exporter of plants to the UK, said all of these elements are racking up the costs to transport all plants, including Christmas trees.
“At the bottom of every invoice we are putting ‘£148 = Brexit cost’, and that is a contribution, we share the cost, the real cost on every delivery is around £300,” he said.
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