trade
Brexit ruins Valentine’s Day for florists and wine merchants
Lorries drive into the terminal at the Port of Dover for check-in. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
New controls, delayed delivery times, rising costs: the day of love is no cause for celebration for florists and wine merchants in Great Britain – a consequence of Brexit.
With Valentine’s Day approaching, Brexit is causing problems for British florists and wine merchants. New Brexit controls, which have been due since the beginning of the year for products imported from the EU, are delaying the delivery times of many products, British media reports.
Valentine’s Day is now seen as the first real stress test as many flowers, wines and other typical gifts are imported from the EU.
Wine merchant Daniel Lambert told the PA news agency of problems with a major shipment of wine that was due to arrive this week. However, the competent British authority does not provide the information in good time. This makes even larger deliveries difficult for his company – but smaller companies are much more affected.
Packaging materials biggest problem
Several Scottish florists can attest to that. For Maureen Glen, who runs a flower shop in Lanarkshire, Scotland, the biggest problem is packaging materials not arriving on time from the continent. Glen suspects that deliveries had to be returned first for lack of paperwork and then re-routed. Other florists reported similar experiences, according to the PA. The owner of a gift shop in Edinburgh, Julie Pearson, complained that costs – such as container freight – had risen sharply. Out of necessity, she relies on selling goods from the past year. Because of the corona lockdown that was in force at the time, there was a lot left.
Although Great Britain and the EU have agreed in their Brexit treaty on largely duty-free trade, the exit from the EU still creates considerable hurdles for the import and export of goods. New controls that are gradually being introduced and the additional bureaucracy required are causing delays and higher costs.