Davis Worldwide is an Anglo-Dutch company who import and export fruit and vegetables year-round, many of the products are highly perishable. Since the Brexit deal came into place on 1st of January 2021 the company has had to navigate their way through a sea of red tape to export goods into Europe from the UK.
Mark Wright, Senior Commercial Manager at Davis said that in his 10 years in the industry this has been one of the most challenging experiences he has ever faced.
“The biggest problem with our first export after the 1st of January was knowing where to start,” explains Mark. “There was no clear guidance on the Government website as to what you need to do from a fresh produce industry perspective, what countries need what documentation you need to issue from the UK side or even who you need to talk to to get it. We had fruit which needed to go to Holland and Ireland, so we started talking to the customers and clearing agents to see what they knew. Each of them gave us different information.”
Davis works with high value products such a cherries, which at up to £50 a box can become quite critical quite fast when they need to go different locations.
“We were as prepared as we could be and thought we knew where to start. I got in touch with our local DEFRA office, who were fantastic, and I wouldn’t have been able to get very far without them. They pointed to me towards a system EDOMERO which allows you to book inspectors to come out and inspect your produce and issue phytosanitary certificates. They stipulate that you have to give them 7 days’ notice for this process, which for fresh produce is very challenging to say the least.”
But even logging on to the EDOMERO system was not easy as Mark found out. The details given to him didn’t work in system, but again with some help from the local DEFRA people he got logged in eventually, but it was not easy and there was very little information from the government on this.
Export Declaration
“Our freight forwarder told us we needed an export declaration, but there were again no guidelines on where to get this or who could do this, our freight forwarder couldn’t do it despite having indicated before hand that they could. We eventually found someone who we had worked with before who helped us, but many other companies were not taking on new customers due to back logs.
“Eventually we had all the certificates that we were told we needed to get our produce over to Holland and Ireland, we got the load through customs and to our site in Holland. but when the Dutch KCB came to check the load before we could release it for sale, they held our load as they said they were not happy with the Phyto documents issued in the UK, they wanted to see the original ones from when it was shipped into the UK. These are totally irrelevant as new Phyto certs had been issued. Again, with help from our DEFRA office the problem was solved.
“Initially we needed a lot of documents, but we have now managed to slimline this a bit having gained a bit of knowledge, but really we have gone from just booking transport to having to contact many people to get lots of documents just to send a load, it has become very complicated indeed.”
There is another problem if your order changes, then you have to submit a new declaration but what Mark has found that if you over declare and you send less it is ok, but if you need to send more then the extra goods have not been inspected so you need to get another export certificate, this also goes for Phyto certs.
Hauliers and groupage
There is also the problem of finding a haulier, many are not keen to go to Europe and Ireland, especially with groupage loads, so exporters have been having to send 2 or 3 pallets as a full load which of course adds cost.
“What was shocking was some of main hauliers who looked like they were leading the way and pre-Brexit said they were ready and prepared for Brexit, just refused to take loads as they couldn’t do the import clearance on groupage into Ireland.
“We have found a way to supply our Irish customers, but it means we have to export the produce to Holland cross docking it there with the help of our sister company Davis Europe BV (who also pre-empted the Brexit complications and have moved to a new site in Ridderkerk); then our customers are collecting from Holland sending it to Ireland, it a crazy way to do it and it adds extra cost for everyone and also is a strain on the fruit.
“It appears that the people doing the clearage in Ireland don’t really know what exactly what they have to check, we had one load go through no problem but another load via a difference clearance company with the same paperwork didn’t through, it is very inconsistent.”
EUR1 certificate
A situation has also arisen where as an example product imported from Chile to the UK or NL with a EUR1 certificate is duty free instead of having a 12% tariff on it. The Dutch authorities will not accept the original EUR1 cert and as the product is not ‘manufactured’ in the UK it cannot be issued a new EUR1 cert from the UK Authorities meaning that 12% tariff has to be added.”
It is an impossible situation which we have brought to the attention of both the UK and the Dutch authorities. In an industry which works on low margins this a huge strain on small companies like us, we cannot compete with other suppliers. We hope that the situation will improve but I don’t see it changing in the next few months and as for the problems with groupage that will take a lot to solve. DEFRA are offering a certain amount of flexibility on products coming into the UK but that doesn’t seem to be the case in Europe.
Going forward
“It is no exaggeration when I say this has been the most challenging time in all my years in the industry, at every stage of the process there have been issues. We are now on our 10th export load and as we learn the process it is getting easier and we have now streamlined things as we know who needs what declarations and at which point.”
Mark is creating a guide on what you need to get product exported to the EU and already has 20 points which he thinks will most likely increase to between 30 and 40 points by the time he is finished.
For more information:
Mark Wright
Davis Worldwide
Tel: +44 1205 761822
mwright@davisworldwide.co.uk
www.davisworldwide.nl