LONDON – Full of tons of live crab, lobster and shrimp, the trucks had to reach their destination in Spain within 72 hours south of the Scottish city of Oban to make sure the cargo would survive the journey.
But with Britain applying new trade rules after Brexit, a journey that was once routine is now a high gamble for exporter Paul Knight, managing director of PDK Shellfish.
“It’s like roulette,” he said. Knight said as he swerved two giant trucks away, adding that although he had spent tens of thousands of pounds on the Brexit preparations, he remained terrified that the stoppage in French ports could cause a large part of his consignment. perish.
“We are as Brexit-ready as we can be and we are still facing failure,” he said.
“I’m exhausted, the pressure is so intense – it’s like being on a knife edge,” he added.
Since Britain completed the final phase of Brexit on 1 January and left the European Union’s internal market and customs union, the world has changed for British exporters to the mainland and not in a good way.
Despite a trade deal reached by Britain and the European Union on Christmas Eve, promises once made by Brexit campaigners that leaving the company would free businesses from unnecessary bureaucracy now sound like a macabre joke. Shipments that previously moved with minimal fuss now need major paperwork, including customs declarations and health certificates for food products.
Some British companies have suspended sales to mainland Europe and even Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, although it now has a special customs status due to its land border with Ireland, a member state of the European Union.
The complications are mainly Scottish seafood exporters, many of whom rely on the European market because, according to them, there is no similar demand at home.
Before Colin Anderson and three colleagues sent a load of live crabs, they spent an entire day completing the new paperwork. Even this made it difficult for him to obtain a final document, which was needed to move more than three tons of crab to the Netherlands.
“We thought we would help, but we do not have all the documentation yet,” he said. Anderson, managing director of The Crab Company (Scotland), in Peterhead, said when he debated which way he would choose consignment.
Jimmy Buchan, chief executive of the Scottish Seafood Association, a trade organization, said the new system was “crazy”. There are, he added, “so many certificates are needed, and if not all of them are 100 percent aligned, even if it’s a typo, the system rejects it.”
For companies that have already fallen off the coronavirus and a collapse in the demand of the hospitality industry, the advent of new trading rules has become a very good blow.
In a video posted on Twitter, Lochfyne Langoustines and Lochfyne Seafarms said that its stock was trapped in ports, that exports to the European continent had become impossible and that the company could be forced out of the business world.
“Welcome to the modern world of Brexit and the mess it brings,” he said. “It’s amazing that we’re in this position.”
Victoria Leigh-Pearson, sales director of John Ross Jr., a smoked salmon producer in Aberdeen, said the trucks were rejected by French customs authorities, apparently 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.
Donna Fordyce, CEO of Seafood Scotland, another trading group, said in a statement that the changes triggered layer upon layer of administrative problems, resulting in delays, border denial and confusion.
“These businesses do not transport toilet rolls or appliances,” she said. Fordyce said. “They export the highest quality perishable seafood, which has a limited window to enter the market in excellent condition.”
Mr. Buchan of the Scottish Seafood Association said customers reject some shipments and that products that came through sometimes lost value due to the extra travel time.
“I would not be surprised if it were the death knell of some companies,” he said. Buchan said. “Some lose tens of thousands of pounds, and in some cases it amounts to hundreds of thousands.”
Instead of minimal bureaucracy, exporting fish to France is now a 25-step process. Except for customs declarations, each consignment must have fish and seafood health certification after inspection.
In the ports, the traffic is still moving freely across the canal, but that is partly because the backlog is elsewhere.
DFDS, a Danish logistics company that also operates ferry services, is central in moving Scottish fish to markets in France. It has set up inspections in Larkhall, near Glasgow, where seafood is shipped before being transported to ports and then to the mainland.
But the integration with government tax and customs systems was not smooth, forcing the company to implement slower, manual solutions. In Larkhall, there were delays in signing health certificates and other delays by exporters who did not send the correct paperwork.
“Our people who have to enter the information are overwhelmed by delays.” says Torben Carlsen, CEO of DFDS.
As a result, the company does not currently accept new orders from smaller businesses whose goods have to be combined into one truck with many different paperwork.
Because each consignment needs the right certification, a problem with one of them could stop the truck.
“We were very strict,” he said. Carlsen said. ‘And so I believe, everyone should make sure that if you do not have the paperwork in place, you can not enter the ports. Because if you do that and you can not move, then you risk much greater operational problems and problems with the supply chain. ‘
As for the extra cost, the Scottish Government estimates that new delays at the border, including new customs formalities, are expected to amount to £ 7bn a year, about $ 9.5bn, for British affairs.
Many Scottish exporters feel resentful that although the British decided to blow through many European trucks for a few months while working the nods out of the system, France introduced the new rules from Day 1.
They want the government to negotiate concessions with the French authorities, and with opinion polls supporting the majority for Scottish independence, the seafood industry is likely to increase resentment in London. A majority of Scots who voted in the 2016 Brexit referendum wanted to stay in the European Union, but the English and Welsh voters were less than them.
Although the system may become more effective in the coming months as dental problems are alleviated, it is unlikely to become significantly less bureaucratic now that Britain has left the European Union’s customs union and internal market.
This inevitably means that millions more forms of exporters are needed, although the government – which has encouraged companies to expand their horizons and look for non-European markets – says they have been warning them for months to prepare for the trading conditions after Brexit.
But for mr. Knight, from Oban, can no preparation ensure the possibility that his highly perishable product will get him stuck in a queue for hours behind other vehicles awaiting inspection upon arrival at a French port.
French officials are trying their best, he said, and two of his trucks have made it successful. But they traveled during the holiday season when traffic was extremely low, which is likely to change.
With little market for its premium shellfish in Britain, Mr. Knight said the only way to keep his business going was to keep gambling with the export across the channel, even if the odds were against it.
“At some point, we’re going to type the wrong key on the computer, or a document has the wrong date,” he said. “It’s not a question of whether they’re going to catch me, it’s when.”