Plant retailers braced for Brexit uncertainty
The plants you buy this year are more likely to be grown in Britain – and those imported from Europe may have higher price tags, as wholesalers and retailers scramble to adapt to life after Brexit.
About 55,000 lorryloads of plants arrive in the UK each year from the Netherlands alone – and now each must go through additional administration to be imported into Britain, including new plant passports and extra health checks. Large Dutch growers are aiming to combine shipments destined for several retailers, smaller exporters say they may have to reduce their trade with British growers.
Sellers and growers across the UK are working to reduce their reliance on imports. Online retailer Crocus has opened a new in-house propagation unit that produces half a million plants every year. “We foresaw the problems when the Brexit vote happened and acted to reduce our risk,” says senior plant buyer Adam Durber. He thinks UK nurseries will expand after Brexit to fill gaps. “Plant production takes time – it can’t be done overnight,” he says. “But the Brits’ love of gardening will prevail.”
Relying less on imports will help to make it more difficult for plant diseases to jump the Channel and will lower our carbon footprint, says president of the Horticultural Trades Association, James Barnes. “As a nation we can’t grow everything we want though,” he says, “So where we do need to import, it’ll be more expensive.”
UK wholesalers estimate the new rules could add up to £60 per delivery from the EU, and they worry about delays at ports caused by customs inspections. Managing director, Bruce Harnett, imports over half the cuttings he grows at Kernock Park Plants in Cornwall. “We need to get cuttings in straight away when they arrive from Europe,” he says. “If we have to wait for an inspection, that could get complicated.”
In Northern Ireland, under the Northern Ireland Protocol (at the time of going to press), growers will need extra paperwork for imports from both Europe and the rest of the UK. Alan Mercer, who runs Hillmount Garden Centre in Belfast, has had his entire stock for spring delivered before Brexit happens to avoid problems. “But when it’s gone, it’s gone, so some gardeners will be frustrated,” he says.
■ To find UK growers local to you, go to independentplantnurseriesguide.uk
Plants from the EU now need extra health checks