LONDON – The trucks loaded with tons of live crabs, lobsters and prawns headed south from the Scottish town of Oban had to reach their destination in Spain within 72 hours to make sure the cargo would survive the trip.
With the UK complying with new trade rules following Brexit, a trip that used to be routine is now a gamble for exporter Paul Knight, managing director of PDK Shellfish.
“It’s like roulette,” said Mr. Knight as he waved off two huge trucks, adding that despite spending tens of thousands of pounds on Brexit preparations, he continued to fear that raids in French ports would be causing a large part of his broadcast could perish.
“We are as ready for Brexit as possible and we are still facing failure,” he said.
“I’m exhausted, the pressure is so strong – it’s like being on a knife edge,” he added.
Since the UK completed the final phase of Brexit on January 1st and left the European Union’s internal market and customs union, the world has changed and not in a good way for UK exporters to the continent.
Despite a trade deal signed by the UK and the European Union on Christmas Eve, promises by Brexit activists that leaving the bloc would free companies of unnecessary red tape now sound like a macabre joke. Shipments that previously moved with minimal effort now require extensive documentation, including customs declarations and, for food products, health certificates.
Various problems have hit UK companies, some of which have ceased sales to continental Europe and even Northern Ireland which is part of the UK. Due to its land border with Ireland, a member state of the European Union, it now has a special customs status.
The complications pose a particular threat to Scottish seafood exporters, many of whom rely on the European market because there is no similar demand at home.
Before shipping a truckload of live crabs, Colin Anderson and three colleagues devoted a full day to completing the new records. Even that led him to secure one final document required to bring more than three tons of crabs to the Netherlands.
“We thought we were on top, but we still don’t have all the records,” said Anderson, executive director of the Crab Company, Scotland, based in Peterhead, as he pondered which route to take for his broadcast.
Jimmy Buchan, executive director of the Scottish Seafood Association, a trade organization, said the new system “went insane”. He added that “so many certificates are required and if they are not all 100 percent aligned, the system will reject them, even if it is a typo.”
For companies already hit by the coronavirus and falling demand from the hospitality industry, the introduction of new trade rules was a sucker.
In a video posted on Twitter, Lochfyne Langoustines and Lochfyne Seafarms said their inventory was stuck in ports, that exports to mainland Europe had become impossible and that the company could be put out of business.
“Welcome to the modern world of Brexit and the disorder associated with it,” it said. “It’s unbelievable that we’re in this position.”
According to Victoria Leigh-Pearson, sales director for John Ross Jr., an Aberdeen-based smoked salmon manufacturer, French customs apparently reject entire truck loads without explanation.
“It feels like our own government has thrown us into the cold Atlantic waters without a life jacket,” she wrote in a letter to the government.
To make matters worse, IT outages in France and the UK exacerbated the problems, said Donna Fordyce, managing director of Seafood Scotland, another trading group.
The changes have created layer-by-shift administrative problems that have resulted in delays, border denials and confusion, she said in a statement.
“These companies don’t transport toilet rolls or widgets. They export the highest quality perishable seafood that has a limited window of time to get to market in tip-top condition, ”said Ms. Fordyce.
Customers turned down some shipments, and even products that made it through sometimes lost value due to the extra travel time.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this were the death knell for some companies,” said Mr. Buchan. “Some lose tens of thousands of pounds, and in some cases run into the hundreds of thousands.”
Instead of minimal bureaucracy, exporting fish to France is now a 25-step process. In addition to customs declarations, every consignment of fish and seafood must receive a health certificate after the inspection.
Traffic still moves freely across the canal in the ports, but this is partly due to the fact that the raids are elsewhere.
DFDS, a Danish logistics company that also offers ferry services, plays a key role in moving Scottish fish to markets in France. It has set up inspections at Larkhall, near Glasgow, where seafood is shipped before it is driven into ports and then onto the continent.
However, the integration with government tax and customs systems did not go smoothly, forcing the company to implement slower manual workarounds. In Larkhall, there have been delays in signing health certificates and other raids by exporters who did not send the correct documentation.
“Our employees who are supposed to enter the information have been overwhelmed by delays.” said Torben Carlsen, managing director of DFDS.
As a result, the company is currently not taking new orders from smaller companies whose goods need to be grouped in a truck with many different papers.
Since every shipment needs the correct certification, a problem with one shipment can stop the entire truckload.
“We were very strict,” said Mr. Carlsen. “I think everyone else has to make sure that you cannot enter the ports if you don’t have your records. Because if you do this and can’t move, you risk much bigger operational and supply chain problems. “
In terms of additional costs, the Scottish Government estimates that new delays at the border, including new customs formalities, will amount to £ 7 billion, approximately $ 9.5 billion, annually for UK business.
Many Scottish exporters are saddened that France implemented the new rules from day one, while the British decided to wave through many European trucks for several months while the kinks are worked out of the system.
They want the government to negotiate concessions with the French authorities and with opinion polls showing a majority support for Scottish independence, the problems of the fishing industry are likely to fuel resentment against London. A majority of Scots who voted in the 2016 Brexit referendum wanted to stay in the European Union, but they were numerically among the English and Welsh voters.
Although the system could become more efficient in the coming months as the teething troubles are resolved, it is unlikely that it will become significantly less bureaucratic after the UK leaves the customs union and the European Union’s internal market.
Inevitably, this means billions of more forms will be required from exporters, and the government, which has urged exporters to broaden their horizons and look for non-European markets, has warned them for months to prepare for post-Brexit trading conditions.
But for Mr. Knight of Oban, no preparation can assure the possibility that his perishable product will be waiting in line for hours behind other vehicles waiting for inspection upon arrival at a French port.
French officials are doing their best, he says, and two of his trucks have made it successfully. But they were traveling during the holiday season when traffic was unusually light, a situation that is inevitably about to change.
With little market for its premium shellfish in the UK, Mr Knight said the only way to keep his business going is to keep playing with the cross-channel export trade, even if the odds are against him.
“At some point we will tap the wrong key on the computer or the wrong date will appear on a document,” he said. “It’s not about if they catch me, but when.”
