"none of your foreign muck here"

Fire · January 2021

So, London's plant imports have seized up. Just talking with my small, independent, local garden shop about snowdrops, iris ret, crocus etc. They have no stock, because their Dutch companies can get no import clearance. The shop owners are passionate Brexiters and would wax lyrical about the sunlit uplands of British sovereignty. Not so much now, with an empty shop.

Obelixx · January 2021

Yet another case where "caveat emptor" applies for all those who happily bought the Brexit line.

I know of at least one bulb nursery in Lincolnshire that fears having to close now it can no longer ship bulbs to its EU customers. There's a clear solution to both problems if they show a bit of initiative.

Loxley · January 2021

The flipside is hopefully we will be less reliant on Dutch/Italian tree imports and build up our own nursery trade. (This applies especially to the construction sector).

Obelixx · January 2021

Yes, but it will take time and planning and, I bet, not be done on anything like the scale and thus economy the Dutch manage, but then they have had successive governments investing in and encouraging joined up thinking to support and develop innovation and technology in horticulture and agriculture.

The Netherlands are the second largest food exporters in the world. They earn over 5.8billion euros a year from exports of ornamental plants and flowers.

The British government and many investors, educators and influencers still seem to think horticulture is for the under educated, unambitious and otherwise unemployable.

Fire · January 2021

The UK hort sector has had four years to plan for British grown goods market. It doesn't seem to have helped.

B3 · January 2021

Our government doesn't plan that far ahead. They might not be in power then and they want to empty the trough while they can.

Nollie · January 2021

Nothing working much the other way either. Some of my regular sources of UK goodies - not just plants, food items, cosmetics - where suppliers have suspended all exports. I have a consignment of household goods and inherited furniture currently stuck in the UK because customs officials on both sides cannot agree on the correct paperwork - customs declarations, tariffs, VAT arrangements etc. A friend is an antiques dealer who buys a lot in French fairs, says her transporters cannot get any clarity on the requirements from the UK Government, so trade there has seized up too.

Fire · January 2021

The sector too needs to do market planning. It should be a boom time coming for British grown goods. Except it seems it won't be.

Fire · January 2021

I have a consignment of household goods and inherited furniture currently stuck in the UK because customs officials on both sides cannot agree on the correct paperwork - customs declarations, tariffs, VAT arrangements etc.

So sorry to hear you are struggling with all this @Nollie

My major very personal concern is medications. If there are delays in certain meds coming into the country and I can't get them I am screwed in short order. I know certain hormone drugs have been in very short supply for years and this is certain to get worse; I have friends who have been told they will just have to wait months because they can simply not be imported.

Fire · January 2021

Nollie · January 2021

Well, a bit of furniture and old stuff is not urgent - in fact, there are certain pieces I’m rather ambivalent, shall we say, about receiving 😆 and I’m sure it will be sorted at some point. People’s livelihoods and indeed lives are much more of a worry, Fire, I hope if there are problems with meds, they get that sorted as a priority.

"none of your foreign muck here"

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