Brexit ‘gives advantage to EU suppliers’, says grower

Before Brexit, Johnsons of Whixley sold half a million pounds worth of plants a year to Northern Irish customers, but the company now says “new and impractical restrictions have put a wedge between long-standing trading relationships”.

To prevent a hardening of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the Brexit deal provides for checks at Northern Irish ports on goods coming from Great Britain, effectively treating the six counties as part of the EU and erecting a customs border in the Irish Sea.

The new legislation stops nurseries like Johnsons supplying many of their plants into the EU and now also Northern Ireland. Plants that have had any contact with the soil, even if container grown, are considered a risk due to the likely presence of soil residue which could be carrying pathogens or nematodes.

Johnsons says that although removing the soil residue is possible, it is impractical and would defeat the object of rootballing and containerisation.

As a result, long-standing customers of Johnsons and other nurseries now have to go directly to EU suppliers as there are no restrictions on soil residue between EU members.

Jonathan Whittemore, head of production and procurement at Johnsons, said: “This legislation penalises UK growers and gives an immediate competitive advantage to EU suppliers who may go on to monopolise supply into an existing part of the UK at the expense of our business and the wider industry.

“The Brexit ‘project’ was meant to reduce red tape and bureaucracy and was surely not intended to penalise UK suppliers and active Northern Ireland/UK customers.

“The restriction was designed to protect the wider EU flora and fauna; under this scenario there is ‘nil’ risk to the EU from Johnsons’ traditional supply into Northern Ireland, be it from our own production or, ironically, imports sourced in the EU and supplied into Northern Ireland!”