Brexit and The Flower Industry in the UK – Not all bad news?

Here is an interesting piece from the BBC News today about the potential impact of Brexit on the flower industry. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/newsbeat-49988586/brexit-will-the-flower-industry-wilt-or-bloom  

It is interesting to us at Poppleton & Appleby because we dealt with a client enquiry a few months ago for a wholesale flower seller who talked about the very issues highlighted in this report.

For those UK wholesalers who source their flowers from EU countries, delays and potential increased costs are a real concern. 

The client we dealt with talked about similar issues to those raised in this piece by the BBC and can be summarised as:

• Increased paperwork and red tape
• Delays at the border – never a good thing for fresh produce
• The value of Sterling – exchange rate drops mean the £1 buys less flowers now
• All of the above will result in increased costs which somehow will have to be passed on to the customer

And it’s not just the flower industry – the same issues will arise for any perishable product sourced from the EU where a swift and smooth passage of goods into the UK and onwards to the end user is of key importance.

Not all bad News?

Perhaps out of adversity comes opportunity.  The report deals with the fact that certain flowers can actually be sourced in the UK (in this case from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly). 

So providing consumers are willing to adapt their demands to accept the kind of products we can produce in the UK, it seems there may be opportunities to grow more and produce more for our own domestic market.