New import law or gossip?

[Zoom]

A nurseryman said to me a couple of days ago that it won't be possible to import cacti into the UK from the EU thanks to a new law coming out! Has anyone heard anything about this?

[edds]

I've not heard of any new restrictions but, as a hobbyist, it is already pretty much impossible to import plants legally unless you are fully registered with APHAS and pay for inspections.

I wouldn't have thought they'd stop commercial importations as a large amount of our garden centre plants come from the Netherlands.

[RayW]

There is no way the Europeans would want to loose the garden centre trade in the UK, especially the Dutch as edds says.

[Stuart]

Things are meant to be changing from this October. As far as I'm aware the changes are in the physical checks of plants and the type of plants and country of export will be taken into account. That would suggest cacti and succulents from Belgium and Holland would be considered low-risk. However, current checks are based on the 'risk' of imported plants. Whenever I've declared plants and given details of where they can be inspected, they've presumably been considered low risk and haven't been inspected.
There have been problems for a garden centre chain importing nursery-grown cacti through Hull and I've heard that cacti have been refused because of not having CITES import and export papers. As far as CITES goes, all cacti coming from Holland are considered endangered.
What's more important is requiring a phyto certificate with all plant imports which is expensive, between £150 and £250 in Holland, and adds to the cost of UK importers which is then passed on to the UK consumer. I'm not hearing anything about changes to the phyto requirement. All the time we were in the single market, plants moved freely, now we're out, plants haven't suddenly become a health risk though there are a small number of genera outside our hobby that are known to be a risk.

Stuart

[Zoom]

Ok, good to know & a relief thanks

[MatDz]

Someone got fed up and mentions a BBC involvement (cacti are mentioned briefly, but the CITES paperwork issue is described quite well here):

https://wackswickedplants.co.uk/sudden- ... ng-plants/

[el48tel]

Yup this is what happens when you let MPs get involved in law making, then you allow Civil Servants (who are trained in designing paperwork and not trained in stuff at operational level) write something about which they are clueless. Then you employ agencies (not government employees) to operate the enforcement. OK you can work with "jobsworth" who are employed within one operation but this is two steps away from the person who wished it through legislation.

[Stuart]

I heard from a nurseryman at the BCSS event at Wisley last Saturday that he had been charged £400 for 'plant identification' by DEFRA following his last import order. The more we try to follow new rules the more absurd it gets.

Stuart

[Zoom]

Following on from my original post; I now know that some of the major suppliers of plants from Holland to my local garden centre in Essex, will now no longer be supplying cacti,succulents & carnivorous plants because of new checks

[el48tel]

You might want to watch the BBC Look North programme.

https://fb.watch/kzuOPB152D/