Terry S. wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 12:16 pm
There was a piece on the radio (should I say wireless?) news yesterday evening from a Dutch pot ivy wholesale producer. About three quarters of her trade is in GB and she is afraid to send any consignments at the moment because of phytosanitary problems and associated delays. So there are problems for producers on both sides of La Manche.
Wasn't this the major point of the comments earlier regarding new requirements eg for foreign sellers to register with UK authorities and account for VAT on their sales? And hence the impact on UK customers?
But the problems were only caused on one side. We have to live with it.
Terry S. wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 12:16 pm
There was a piece on the radio (should I say wireless?) news yesterday evening from a Dutch pot ivy wholesale producer. About three quarters of her trade is in GB and she is afraid to send any consignments at the moment because of phytosanitary problems and associated delays. So there are problems for producers on both sides of La Manche.
On the bbc website she was from Belgium....it was quite a nice little piece I thought.
ragamala wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 11:20 am
But one single "species" is neither here nor there, at the end of the day, IMO, in the larger scheme of things.
The removal of Homo sapiens would make a great impact I believe.
Has anyone gleaned any further information on this subject ? I freely admit I'm still confused by the whole process. I understand the need for a phyto but can't understand why plants will still be subject to an inspection and therefore a fee charged once they hit the UK as my understanding of the phyto is that it states the plants are healthy and free from pests and diseases. I'm aware that some EU sellers on ebay for instance have started to add 20% vat at point of sale and have started to offer a phyto where previously they hadn't to allow the sale of plants to be sent to the UK. Should this not mean that any plants purchased from the EU can then freely enter the UK ?. To add to my confusion it appears that as an "Importer" I have to inform the relevant government agencies of the plants arrival and then personally arrange for the plants to be inspected with associated fees. It does appear that the government isn't taking into account that a private individual hobbyist would be buying a few plants from Europe but rather everyone is a business.
jeffers766 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 21, 2021 4:18 pm
Has anyone gleaned any further information on this subject ? I freely admit I'm still confused by the whole process. I understand the need for a phyto but can't understand why plants will still be subject to an inspection and therefore a fee charged once they hit the UK as my understanding of the phyto is that it states the plants are healthy and free from pests and diseases. I'm aware that some EU sellers on ebay for instance have started to add 20% vat at point of sale and have started to offer a phyto where previously they hadn't to allow the sale of plants to be sent to the UK. Should this not mean that any plants purchased from the EU can then freely enter the UK ?. To add to my confusion it appears that as an "Importer" I have to inform the relevant government agencies of the plants arrival and then personally arrange for the plants to be inspected with associated fees. It does appear that the government isn't taking into account that a private individual hobbyist would be buying a few plants from Europe but rather everyone is a business.
The problem as I see it is that the information published on this be Defra etc has all been directed at professional importers. With plant passporting we had (particularly as this was subject to EU regulation which was more detailed which required DEFRA action to interpret) a distinction between professional and amateur growers to which DEFRA and APHA indeed provided some guidance.
However, regarding imports of plants, as you and I suggest, all the guidance is directed at businesses. The indication is that the PEACH system only registers businesses, not individuals. And in reality how would they be interested in an individual who made a one-off purchase from an EU supplier? How could the purchaser (or their supplier) know the "port of entry" to the UK?
Until anyone actually askes DEFRA or APHA a question on this specific point, or until we judge the situation from experience, I think we shall remain somewhat in the dark.
Regarding cost of inspection it is free until the end of March. Which makes me suspect that inspections of small imports will be non-existent - DEFRA admit they haven't the staff to police the full regs until July.
"Some" plants will be checked from 1st April. I suspect again that inspections of small packages of succulents will not be physically checked. So maybe during the phasing in of the full system we will have some chance to judge the eventual situation.
I have to agree with everything you've said. I made a couple of phone calls yesterday firstly to DEFRA the lady I spoke to couldn't answer my questions particularly regarding private individuals Importing a few plants from Europe at one point she said she would have to put me on hold to ask someone else ,I was then cut off ! I then rang APHA this time the gentleman i spoke to was more helpful. In essence he gave me the same information you have stated so, no physical plant checks at least untill April he went on to say that they have a quota for physical checks and once these have been reached it is quite possible that very few other checks would be carried out. Regarding costs he stated £10.51 for the document check, phytosanitary etc. I mentioned that it has been stated on some of the cactus forums the cost of the physical inspection is going to be £180 he said that figure is wrong and is probably based on outdated information from 2018 and before. I was then told the true figure is very likely to be along the lines of the document check fee , and said that even the fee for physical check for plants coming from outside of the EU is £10/15 per consignment so couldn't see the EU check being anymore than this. With regard to PEACH he said private individuals still need to register but put your home address as the " business address " my only concern is that as has been said how are we supposed to know which port the plants will come into. I mentioned that some sellers on Ebay are providing phytosanitary certificates to which he replied he wouldn't recommend buying one this way as you are better off getting them from the country of origins equivalent to our DEFRA but quite how achievable that would be I don't know! Clearly things are still evolving but I think in a few months things will be much clearer and we will have a real cost of Importing cacti from Europe. I don't think it's ever going to be financially viable to buy one or two plants but, putting in a decent order with one of the nurseries will be worthwhile albeit with the extra costs.
jeffers766 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 9:03 am
I made a couple of phone calls yesterday firstly to DEFRA ..................
Thanks a lot for taking the trouble on that, I'm sure it will be useful (and a spur to ordering asap) to anyone contemplating ordering from the EU. (Not me, it's more an academic interest).
It seems they haven't thought this through re private purchasers, the idea of individuals who want to order plants from the EU registering with PEACH (or even knowing they were expected to) is rather fanciful, to say the least. Let's hope some common sense seeks in before July.
I made a post earlier in this thread about a plant I ordered on Jan 1st from Poland. Well it arrived safely yesterday, I paid 20% vat at point of sale on Ebay, but no phyto was involved. In my experience 3 weeks is about par from Poland, as the seller didn't post it until last Monday, is this just luck, or will it be the norm? I think the only way we will ever really find out is by trial and error.
