Inspection Woes Causing Chaos
- Viv Bradford
- Jul 8
- 3 min read
There can’t be many of us that haven’t had delayed deliveries since the extra border checks came into being in April 2024. These checks focus on medium risk flowers such as orchids, chrysanthemums and carnations. The same procedure was being implemented for medium risk fruit and veg too, but after pressure from the industry and lobby groups such as the Fresh Produce Consortium a temporary reprieve has been sought.
Unfortunately, the same has not happened for cut flowers and plants, increasing pressure at the border, causing late deliveries, costing a huge amount of money and leaving cut flowers and plants to literally die as they are impounded for inspections.
DEFRA had tripled its workforce at the border to deal with the fruit and veg requirements but now that they are no longer needed the personnel has not been flipped over to inspect cut flowers and plants as hoped. This has led to some EU suppliers pulling out of the UK market, citing the costs of these delays as prohibitive. Unlike our flower supply chains, the DEFRA checks are not available 24 hours a day which is what is leading to long delays at ports.
What can we as florists do to mitigate this situation until hopefully, a workable solution can be found? It’s a tough one, because there is only so much, we can do, but here are some of the measures that I have put in place.
Keep wedding and funeral orders as generalised as you can, promising certain varieties can lead to disappointment and extra stress for you. I have started to promise colours but not specific varieties wherever possible.
Look at timeframes; consider ordering a day earlier to prevent possible delays having a detrimental effect on that days orders.
Find a wholesaler who holds physical stock in the UK, be that a smaller local wholesaler or a Dutch wholesaler who has both UK stock or direct from Holland ordering, so that you can swap between the two or top up if needed. Look at Florismart and Flowervision branches who have a broad geographical spread.
Work a day or two ahead of yourself if you can. Although this is not always possible and we will ALWAYS get those last-minute orders, it really does help to reduce the stress.
Look at making connections with local growers and wholesalers who offer British grown stock.
Sadly, until this situation is looked at by the government, we need to try to make small adjustments to the way we work to help us reduce the stress of a late delivery. There is nothing that any of our wholesalers can do to get here quicker than they are, they very much are at the mercy of bureaucratic red tape. Trust me when I say it frustrates them more than us. Hopefully the Fresh Produce Consortium will keep up the pressure and persuade the government to find a more workable solution to a problem that is causing so much pain for every link in the supply chain.
Viv Bradford trained in West Germany in the late 1980s before returning to the UK, where she has pursued many roles in the industry from running retail premises, teaching floristry, working in wholesale, business coaching florists and running an award-winning studio florist specialising in weddings. Viv also created and runs Facebook group The Floristry Geek for students and those new to the industry which concentrates on educational content.
