Borders related issues have been taking up a lot of the OATA team’s resources over the past few months – with various issues rearing their head to create real challenges in getting fish into shops and ultimately to fishkeepers’ home aquariums and ponds. If you have experienced issues with supply from wholesalers and importers here’s just a flavour of why!
Computer says no!
It’s hard to believe in the 21st century but outages of important government IT systems, are creating real headaches for importers – ultimately leading to fish being held up as they pass through the UK Border, with knock-on effects on supply to wholesalers/retailers. Importers in particular face major frustrations because two Government computer systems just don’t always ‘talk’ to each other – leaving fish consignments in limbo, causing significant delays while importers and officials manually chase up the status of shipments. This has been a longstanding unresolved issue and is just not acceptable. Despite highlighting it repeatedly we have yet to be able to meet with the team responsible for maintaining the system but continue to press for this. so finding a resolution is proving extremely difficult. It is a frequent item on the agenda when OATA meets with Government Border teams. Workarounds have been suggested but are not always communicated clearly with industry.
So much paperwork!
Creating a new Border at the UK has definitely increased the paperwork that must accompany livestock and, even though the system is new, Defra’s Animal Health teams are being extremely punitive when they spot errors. This differs from the approach being taken by Defra Plant Health teams who are taking a more educational stance to businesses which make mistakes. Businesses are finding that if everything isn’t absolutely correct, consignments are being held up and delayed for yet more checks.
All plants and animal products (these are things like frozen and live food) are all now considered either high or medium risk and importers have to obtain health certificates from the Competent Authorities in their country of origin. This new paperwork, combined with inconsistent and confusing communication from the UK Government, has also created significant issues for importers. In fact, it’s creating so many problems that some EU plant suppliers are starting to think twice about shipping to the UK, which may be why some wholesalers/retailers are finding it more difficult to get supplies from their normal sources.
Added to this is the new Susceptible and Vector Species (SVS) rules which is creating problems for importers accessing some popular species. Overseas suppliers need to be certified as having disease-free status for health certificates or else they are unable to export to the UK. This will definitely affect supply of some bread-and-butter fishes (eg zebra danios and their variants) and either stop supply or make them much more expensive as importers shift to different suppliers in other countries with the appropriate disease status.
So many fees!
Additional Border paperwork means additional fees as more checks are introduced. These import fees will inevitably have to be passed on to end user businesses. It’s particularly galling to pay these fees when services can be so poor from Government agencies.
This is just a flavour of some of the issues being faced by the importer businesses, there are many more! But if your business is experiencing problems with supply then it’s likely these issues could continue for some time yet. OATA and importer member businesses are meeting regularly with Border officials to try to find solutions not least because when proposed livestock checks from the EU are introduced next year, the situation will only get worse.