BUY BRITISH IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT

If you’ve ever read my blog before you know I’m passionate about British produce and wherever possible local as you can find.

The recent situation has affected everyone’s shopping choices but we get a lot delivered or from good farms or butchers.

I was, therefore, upset to see another EU directive that will have a devastating impact on small producers who sell food online to the European market .

I received this email today from one of our favourite cheese makers who are located just a couple of miles from us.

“Since January 1st buying British has never been more important. Unfortunately, we and all of the other UK’s online food producers and retailers have been forced to cease shipping directly to the consumers in the EU. The EU’s new rules expect all shipments to the EU regardless of size and customer to have a Veterinary inspected and issued Health Certificate costing £180 per parcel or shipment. During the last 7 days, I have been leading a very public campaign to get the Government to listen and take action. This is a totally unexpected and unplanned restriction to trade. We were fully prepared for the extra documentation and cost called an EHC for all wholesale exports. Practically every other country in the world has an exemption or an allowance for consumers to purchase online, cheese, and other animal products except for the EU. With no help being offered and very little response from MP’s we took action to publicise this problem. Our Tweet last Friday went viral with 4.5 million hits and since then I have been inundated with requests for interviews from the UK and International TV, Radio and newspapers. After 58 interviews and the story being syndicated all over the world, It seems I have shouted enough to be invited to a meeting with the Government with two Ministers to discuss the situation and any possible solutions.

There is no reciprocal arrangement in place, all EU food producers are able to ship to the UK consumer market without restrictions for the next 6 months. I will keep you updated but I am really sorry but it is both a practical and commercial impossibility to be able to ship online orders directly to our EU online customers. Click for a Google News Search

So if you can buy even one extra new food item locally or delivered to you then you can be proud you are doing something to help.