The removal of border checks and paperwork on plant imports will “dissolve” £60m of annual costs for the horticulture industry once the UK and EU’s new post-Brexit deal takes effect, environment secretary Angela Eagle has said, according to The Guardian. Speaking ahead of a UK-EU summit on 20 November, Eagle said she hoped the paperwork burden on importers would “disappear” after the changes, though she acknowledged the move would not help businesses recoup the large sums already spent on border controls.
“If we get the ink dry on 20 November, which I very much hope we will … all of that uncertainty, the extra cost, the paperwork and the potential problems if things get stuck at borders would all disappear,” Eagle told The Guardian during a visit to a plant nursery in Kent. “The cost, that £60m, can just dissolve and people’s potential to both export back into the EU and get their imports in … gets easier and more predictable.”
What the sanitary and phytosanitary deal changes
The UK’s departure from the bloc triggered border checks on imports and exports of plants, food and animal products, from sausages and cheese to trees and leather goods. The sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal, largely agreed between the two sides in May, is due to be signed at next week’s summit. According to The Guardian, it will permit the removal of the vast majority of physical checks and most of the accompanying certificates and paperwork. The savings cover plant health inspection fees, phytosanitary certificates, document and ID checks, port fees, agents’ fees, additional labour costs and extra haulage costs. These total £60m a year, according to calculations by the industry body the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), but do not include late delivery penalties or sales lost because of port delays or damage to goods. Eagle said the savings should put “downward pressure on food prices”, although she would not confirm the deal would lower the cost of food in the UK. The Guardian also reported that exports of British food and drink to the EU have collapsed by more than a third since Brexit, according to analysis by the National Farmers’ Union, with egg, chicken and potato producers badly affected. That wider trade damage is the backdrop to a deal whose direct horticulture benefit is measured in tens of millions rather than billions. The political framing around the deal is broader than horticulture. BBC News reported that prime minister Andy Burnham, speaking after meeting European leaders in Ireland, said he believes a “win-win” deal can be agreed with the EU and that it could be “more like the Brexit that people thought they were voting for” in 2016. Burnham said the negotiations could “go down to the wire” and argued the deal could help lower prices and boost the UK economy. The BBC reported that the government claims the UK economy will eventually see £5.1bn worth of annual benefits as a result of the agreement.Why the relief does not arrive until 2028
According to The Guardian, the deal is not expected to be implemented until the first quarter of 2028, meaning businesses such as Provender Nurseries will still be subject to the current border arrangements for more than a year. Eagle conceded the implementation date was later than the mid-2027 target set when former prime minister Keir Starmer announced his EU “reset” deal in May 2025. Starmer’s replacement by Andy Burnham led to a “pause” in negotiations with Brussels, said Eagle, with the November summit pushed back from July. The original target was “always a very, very ambitious timescale,” she said, adding that the extra time had allowed a more coherent approach to “knottier, thornier issues on things like pesticides”. The timing matters commercially because the costs are being incurred now. Provender Nurseries, one of the UK’s largest wholesale nurseries, has already spent at least £500,000 on building a post-Brexit control post on its eight-hectare site in Swanley, Kent, which will become obsolete once the deal is implemented. Richard McKenna, the managing director, told The Guardian the business constructed the “sealed building and bought four electric forklifts to operate in it” to allow inspections of lorry loads of valuable trees and shrubs imported from the continent. The company built the site to reduce the “delays and damage” it had experienced when smaller loads were inspected at government-run border control posts such as Sevington. “It cost a lot for a barn, but it gave us security as a business,” McKenna said.Who gains and which products remain exposed
Beyond the headline £60m, the deal’s value lies in predictability. McKenna said he hopes the SPS deal will convince some of Provender’s European suppliers, previously deterred by the paperwork and potential pitfalls of post-Brexit trade with the UK, to restart exports, though he cautioned: “We need to see the small print on the agreement.” Fran Barnes, chief executive of the HTA, called for “some easements as a transition arrangement that are pragmatic” to help horticulture businesses, such as fewer or no checks on imports of lower-risk products. There are unresolved product-specific risks. The UK has continued to use some pesticides and fungicides that are banned in the EU, which has prompted industry concerns that British potatoes grown in 2027, treated with pesticides banned in the EU, could need to be thrown away if the resulting frozen chips went on sale after the deal’s implementation. Eagle said: “We are very well aware of these kinds of issues and the EU is also very aware it doesn’t want to be seen to be wasting food.” Exporters of seed potatoes and some mussels also hope the SPS deal will allow trade halted by Brexit to restart. Adam Taylor, a director of Taylors Bulbs in Lincolnshire, told The Guardian: “We have been waiting for this moment, but it all depends on the timing of the deal.” A Brexit certification disagreement halted exports of British seed potatoes, particularly from Scotland, to the EU, and Taylors underwent the “laborious and expensive” work of setting up an Irish business to keep supplying the Republic of Ireland.The political contest around the deal
The wider political context remains contested. BBC News reported that the Conservatives have previously said Labour are “dragging us into the European Union via the back door with their EU reset”, and that Conservative MP Dame Priti Patel said: “Andy Burnham’s obsession with the EU risks dragging Britain backwards, damaging our economy and leaving hardworking British taxpayers footing the bill.” The Liberal Democrats described the draft deal as a “patch, not a fix”, while Reform UK and the Green Party hold opposing positions on alignment and customs union membership respectively. Burnham has ruled out major changes to the UK’s relationship with the EU before the next general election, in line with Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledge of “no return to the single market, the customs union, or freedom of movement”.What importers should watch before repricing contracts
For importers, nurseries, landscapers and food growers, the practical question is timing rather than principle. The £60m figure is an annual industry estimate from the HTA, not a guarantee of individual firm savings, and it excludes late delivery penalties and lost sales. With implementation not expected until the first quarter of 2028, current border arrangements remain in force for more than a year, and the transition easements the HTA is seeking have not been confirmed. Firms weighing contract repricing should treat the savings as a medium-term prospect contingent on the 20 November signature and the subsequent implementation schedule, rather than a cost reduction available in the current trading year.Sources and References
- The Guardian — theguardian.com
- BBC News — bbc.co.uk
