On Tuesday, EVO director Machiel van der Kuijl spoke about his concerns regarding border controls between Germany, Denmark and Sweden. According to him, fresh produce trade with Scandinavia brings in 3.5 billion Euro a year and the delays could cause millions of Euro in damages, "I recently sat in a traffic jam for four hours. The delays are taking hours, and sometimes even half a day. This is about large volumes of fresh produce, like vegetables, flowers and plants. These goods must be transported in good time in order to remain fresh," says Machiel to BNR.
ST Dewaal truck at the snowy Helsinki harbor
Despite this news, Guy Evenepoel from ST Dewaal can report that there have been no traffic jams due to the controls or stowaways. ST Dewaal truck drivers drive 1,200 to 1,300 trucks to Finland a year, six days a week. They start in the Netherlands, drive to the port in Hamburg and then take a boat to Finland. Despite the controls, Guy does not expect the refugee problem to effect the ports, "The port is well protected, and most of the refugees trying to enter Finland do so via Sweden. Also, it is much too cold to go this route."
C. Vreugdenhil International Transport drives 10 cars a week to Scandinavia and has no problems. Drivers from J.P. Vis & Zn., one of the largest fresh produce transporters to Sweden, drives smoothly past the usual passport controls. The same goes for Angvik Auto's drivers and Hartman Expeditie.
Despite the fact that Machiel was perhaps just at the wrong place at the wrong time, it is still important to remain aware of the impact of the refugee problem on fresh produce trade.