Brexit: complex situation arises around transportation of tree and plant material to Northern Ireland

FEARS expressed in the dying days of December 2020 over the Northern Ireland Protocol and how it might disrupt the importing of planting material from Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) are now reality. But who would have suspected that soil and compost would be the main stumbling blocks preventing NI’s nurseries and garden centres getting supplies of trees and shrubs?

However, UK government guidance for the post-Brexit shipment of plant material to NI shows why GB suppliers are at least reluctant to satisfy existing orders to customers in NI. Apart from the long list of ‘high-risk’ and essentially prohibited plant species (including most mainstream broadleaf trees), soil and compost are the overriding factors. Soil and compost media – except pure peat or coconut fibre – are prohibited, which automatically excludes most container-grown or potted plants and bare-root planting material from NI.

Not so ‘sweet’ for Castanea sativa planting material on the high-risk list for post-Brexit plant exports from GB to NI.

THE PROBLEM IS WITH THE SOIL

Beth Lunney, who runs Saintfield Nursery Centre in County Down, told the BBC how the present shortage of plant stock was predictable back in November 2020. She began to prepare by signing up to the UK government’s Trader Support Service and by liaising with her GB suppliers, but a long-standing GB supplier of hardy nursery stock, including azaleas and rhododendrons, contacted her with the message: “Beth, I don’t think I’m going to be able to get this over to you. It’s really about the possibility that there’s soil in the pots.”

It seems crazy, but her supplier had correctly interpreted new rules, as they appear on UK Government websites. NI remains in the EU’s plant health system and as such must apply EU rules to plant material entering NI from GB. Plant movements require a plant health certificate, but in addition some products are prohibited. In addition to the long list of plant species – including most mainstream native, broadleaf trees – the banned products include soil because it can carry insect pests and plant pathogenic microbes.

Next, Lunney’s GB supplier of roses got in touch. She said: “I had an email to say that they would not be able to supply my roses which I had on order since the autumn. The problem in this case was the peat-reduced compost used to pot up the roses and which now has a wood fibre and bark component.”

Lunney said she was not angry with her GB suppliers: “The growers in GB are in a terrible position. They cannot take a chance and send plants to us as they may be delayed at our new border [in the Irish Sea], and a living plant, just like food, is perishable. Or worse, the load could be taken and destroyed. Who will be willing to take that chance? I guess no one.”

This is not just a challenge for Beth Lunney’s business but for the whole sector in NI, now unable to access stocks of GB-sourced plant material required to satisfy customers.

For its part, the UK government said businesses are adjusting well to the new rules and continue to trade effectively, but that’s clearly not the message from NI.

It is now easier for Northern Ireland’s traders to get at least some of the plant material they require from EU countries. Lunney said she was already sourcing some of her stock of plants from the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland.

She said: “A couple of nurseries down south (in the Irish Republic) are emailing us all the time saying they’re going to have roses.” But this will not be like-for-like replacement. “You’re not getting the particular varieties that you really want.”

Lunney said there is also an issue of principle: “We were told we would leave the EU as one country, i.e. as the UK, but we have been badly let down by all those that govern us. We in NI should be equal to Scotland, Wales and England as members of the UK, but that is sadly now not the case.”

Ongoing supply problems were aired by another NI business owner on the News Letter website. Robin Mercer, who owns Hillmount, one of NI’s largest businesses in the sector with garden centres in Belfast, Bangor and Ards, said: “I fear for our family-run garden centre business. Like many others we’re on the brink of collapse through no fault of our own.”

In response, News Letter asked Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, if he now accepted that there is a border in the Irish Sea – something he has denied. His department did not answer that question, instead talking up “the opportunities leaving the EU brings”. The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) insisted that “overall, businesses are adjusting well to the new rules and continue to trade effectively”.

Phytophthora ramorum exhibits a wide host range. The pathogen entered the UK multiple times via the horticultural trade with EU countries. The first entry into the UK was most likely on rhododendron or viburnum, the latter shown here.

But the reality is that prices are rising across the board, said Mercer, except for the products which will not be available for sale in NI at any price because GB companies are refusing to sell there. He explained how the government was now encouraging him to use peat despite spending years urging him to give up the precious natural resource “to save the environment”. He added it was now illegal to import a plant from GB which has any soil or bark-based, peat-free compost around it or adhering to the roots.

READ MORE: Can ragwort really toxify tree-planting projects?

Plants grown exclusively in peat will not be banned, although they will still need cost-incurring customs declarations and plant health certificates to be moved across the Irish Sea. Mercer said: “The government has been asking us to replace peat with recycled bark and other materials – but now we have one part of the government saying that and another part of the government saying the opposite.”

These EU rules are designed to prevent soil-borne pests and pathogens from entering European Union Territory, but the island of Ireland and GB have traded plants growing in soil since the UK joined the EU in 1973 and for centuries before that. Mr Mercer says his family business, operating for 80 years, has been trading with nurseries and seed companies in England, Scotland and Wales for generations. And now these companies would have to grow their products in special peat compost just to supply the NI market – something many simply will not do.

UK GOVERNMENT ‘GUIDANCE’ ON EXPORT FROM GB TO NI

The relevant UK government document is: ‘Export plants and plant products from Great Britain and Northern Ireland – Check if you need a licence or phytosanitary certificate to export plants and plant products’. It was published on 8 November, 2016, and last updated on 19 January, 2021. The relevant section of the document is:

Exporting high-risk and prohibited plants

You can’t export some prohibited commodities from GB to the EU and NI. These prohibitions and requirements fall into three categories:

1. Seed and other propagating materials

2. High-risk plants and plant products

3. Prohibited plants and plant products

1. Seed and other propagating material: You can’t export seed and other propagating material to the EU and NI that is subject to marketing requirements.

2. High-risk plants and plant products: These are prohibited from entering the EU and NI from all countries, until a full risk assessment is conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). An exemption from the prohibition on high-risk plants and plant products can be obtained by Third Country National Protection Organisations (NPPOs) by applying to the European Commission. GB is classed as a ‘Third Country’.

Thirty-five genera of plants are listed in this category. The list covers many native and naturalised trees including: Acer, Betula, Cornus, Corylus, Crataegus, Fagus, Fraxinus, Juglans, Ligustrum, Malus, Populus, Prunus, Quercus, Robinia, Salix, Sorbus, Taxus, Tilia and Ulmus. The list also includes ‘Almus’ which appears to be a spelling error. If so alder (Alnus) is also on the list. The prohibition does not apply to seeds, fruits, leaves, tissue culture material or naturally or artificially dwarfed woody plants of these species.

3. Prohibited plants and plant products: These are prohibited for export to the EU and NI. They include:

• Isolated bark of Castanea
• Soil as such consisting in part of solid organic substances
• Growing medium as such, other than soil, consisting in whole or in part of solid organic substances, other than that composed entirely of peat or fibre of Cocos nucifera (coconut) and previously not used for growing of plants or for any agricultural purposes.

Prohibited plants or soil can only be sent to someone who has a scientific licence to receive them in the EU. They will have a ‘letter of authority’ with their licence.

Soil on bare-rooted plants could stop Christmas tree planting material being exported from GB and to NI. Fraser fir seedling trees, an increasingly popular choice of conifer for Christmas trees, seen here in nursery beds at a GB forest nursery.

TEETHING PROBLEMS?

According to this UK government guidance, GB businesses appear to be interpreting the rules and regulations in the correct way. The 35 high-risk plants listed are, for all intents and purposes, prohibited unless representation is made by GB’s National Protection Organisation to the European Commission. However, any soil or growing medium (other than pure peat or coconut fibre) accompanying plants, irrespective of species, overrides the list. This appears to pertain whether plants are container-grown and potted or even bare-rooted trees which will have some soil adhering to the roots. There clearly are hundreds if not thousands of plant species which are not on the high-risk list, but any plant accompanied by soil or non-specified compost is automatically on the ‘not-wanted’ list.

The UK government describes all this as ‘teething problems’, but it is clearly closer to root canal therapy than dental hygiene work. If the ban on soil or compost media (other than pure peat or coconut fibre) remains, then GB suppliers will clearly find it extremely difficult if not impossible to fulfil orders from NI for plants and planting material.

Scots pine seedlings growing at a forest nursery in England, but can they be exported as bare-root trees to NI?

Brexit negotiations were apparently conducted by politicians and officials with little or no scientific understanding, after which it was down to DEFRA to write guidance according to the negotiated settlement. In retrospect, it might have been a good idea to have someone with a modicum of scientific knowledge at the negotiating table, to whisper in the minister’s ear how plants are invariably grown in soil or compost, which increasingly contains bark and other organic materials in place of peat on UK government insistence.

DEFRA says: “We are committed to phasing out the use of peat in horticulture in England by 2030, and are looking at how legislation can achieve this.”

Fraxinus is on the high-risk list but perhaps a bit of a red herring. A superb stand of Fraxinus excelsior (common ash), seen here at a forest nursery in the English West Midlands on 21 October, 2013. The entire field was lifted and burned a few hours later following the post-Chalara ban on ash tree movement and as such tree planting.

The reasons for this seemingly untenable position are two-fold. The European Commission wants to prevent the spread of plant pests and diseases from third countries (in this case GB) and into European Union Territory – initially the Republic of Ireland but subsequently other EU member states. And that’s because the EU doctrine of Free Trade between EU nation states means plant material entering the Republic of Ireland from a third country (in this case the UK) can be re-exported to another EU country using a self-certified EU plant passport (and we know how foolproof they are).

In different historical and political circumstances there would be a trade border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, as that part of the UK having a common border with an EU member nation. All parties regard a land border as neither desirable nor feasible and, as such, the reason for the Northern Ireland protocol. NI stays as part of the EU’s SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) zone with a ‘border’ in the Irish Sea separating NI and GB. However, there is a certain irony given the recent history of alien pest and disease entry into the UK from other parts of the EU. Since 2000, a long list of pests and pathogens has arrived.

Nerium (oleander) is a non-native plant on the high-risk list. A beautiful shrub, seemingly safe, but recently identified as highly susceptible to Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterial disease currently killing millions of olive trees in Italy and almond trees in Spain.

The original native distributions of these pests and pathogen are scattered throughout the world, including East Asia and South America, but evidence suggests virtually all entered the UK from another EU country despite the EU plant passport system. Given the EU has been so generous in presenting the UK with a succession of pest problems, you might think they would not mind taking some back.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for “urgent action” to resolve “outstanding problems” with the post-Brexit arrangement for Northern Ireland. Michael Gove has penned a letter to the EC to demand “rapid action” to address issues with delivery of plants and seeds to NI.  However, despite all this huff, puff and guff, the issue surrounding vegetative plant material appears intractable. Without a way of growing plants in thin air, scrapping current prohibition on soil is the only way out.

Phytophthora lateralis is a terminal disease affecting a range of cypress trees and has killed the tree on the right. The disease was first detected in the wider environment of the UK at Balloch Castle Country Park in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland in 2010. The most likely source of outbreaks in the UK has been importation of infected plants from EU countries (picture courtesy of the Forestry Commission).

At the time of writing, Michael Gove was in discussions with European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic, with the solving of issues around the Northern Ireland Protocol a top priority. Sefcovic told the Financial Times he and Gove had discussed creating a hotline to address problems at the border “at the moment they arise, before they become big, big issues”.

The post-Brexit block on plant imports from GB into Northern Ireland is about soil consolidation, not sedimentation of dust particles. Plant health certificates are one thing, but ‘soil health certificates’ are a non-starter, and unless the situation is resolved by removing existing bans on soil and non-peat/non-coconut fibre composts then export of plants from GB to Northern Ireland is essentially a lost cause.

Container-grown Gaultheria (checkerberry) and Taxus (yew) are shown here. Taxus is on the high-risk list but Gaultheria is not. However, both were grown in soil or non-peat compost which now prohibits their export from GB to NI.

And where do GB businesses supplying plants and plant-related products to customers in NI stand in all of this? A Yorkshire based plant nursery said it fears losing £500,000 a year due to soil from non-EU states being banned from entering NI which remains within the EU’s plant health system. Jonathan Whittemore, head of production and procurement at Johnsons of Whixeley in North Yorkshire, said the firm didn’t see this coming at all. He told the BBC: “It basically means we can’t sell plants now into Northern Ireland. Talking to our plant health officer, it became apparent that actually any plants that we’d grown on the nursery here in Yorkshire or brought in from other parts of Europe or other parts of the UK and stood down on the ground here would not be able to go into Northern Ireland. They need to be completely free of any traces of soil.” Not so much a case of ‘grown in Britain’ but now ‘groaning in Britain’ over the loss of markets in Ireland.

Full information on trading requirements between GB and NI can be found here.

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