Starting today the UK has introduced border controls for all food imports from the EU. This includes fresh food like veggies, salads, cheeses, meats, and even plants and seeds. If you're a company looking to import these items to the UK, you'll now need a phytosanitary certificate, which is issued by a vet and typically costs around £150-£200 per shipment.
For larger businesses like supermarkets, this cost is distributed over many items, making the per-unit cost quite small, perhaps a penny an item. However, for small businesses, this can add a significant cost per unit. For instance, an independent cheese shop importing a few boxes from Italy or France would need a certificate for each shipment.
Finding a company in Europe willing to handle this paperwork can be a bit of a challenge, especially since many suppliers are less eager to do this since the UK left the EU, they have 26 countries to sell to locally but the UK is now awkward
There's a bit of good news for spice lovers: spices are exempt from these requirements! Although some customs officials might ask for certificates, it's always an interesting conversation to explain that spices are inert and thus can't be certified by a vet. Trading Spices around the world is now the same for trading from Europe, it adds some paperwork and cost for our food but nothing as horrific for fresh
Unfortunately, these new measures could impact small independent food and drink companies, potentially reducing choice and increasing prices for unique food items and quality that big food companies don't offer.
Despite the fact that our food regulations with the EU remain the same, it's a bit of a head-scratcher why we're adding these extra steps. It seems like a lot of time and money for nothing more than paperwork that only has a negative effect on quality and choice in our meals
Enjoy the freedom of quality and choice in all small independent food shops, Steve and The Team
This weeks discount code is
FreeTrade25
Good for 1 use per customer, expires Monday 6th May
Hasbean Coffee was bought out by Ozone Coffee several years ago, they have changed the branding of the coffee but not the coffee itself, still freshly roasted to order with quality sourcing and production Hasbean became famous for
