BTOM round-up: Port capacity questioned and industry uncertainty ahead of April

There is less than one month to go until the introduction of the next phase of the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) rules, with checks on medium- and high-risk sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) goods due to come into force on 30 April.

Widely considered to be the most potentially disruptive phase of the rollout, the IOE&IT Daily Update takes a look at the most recent news surrounding border checks.

Food price rise

Just as we celebrate a drop in food inflation – with food prices rising by only 3.7% last month, compared to 5% in February – retail heads have warned that incoming border checks could undo this progress.

British Retail Consortium’s chief executive, Helen Dickinson, listed disruption from new checks on EU imports as one factor that could contribute to an increase in food prices.

She said that, despite positive data this month, “the risks are on the upside” and added that rises in business rates and the National Living Wage could combine to counteract the downward trend.

Dickinson also said consumers shouldn’t expect a return to pre-Covid food prices, as many of the shocks from recent years are now firmly entrenched.

“We won’t see significant falls in prices back to pre-Covid sort of levels… lots of the costs like wages and some of the impacts of energy, and all of those other commodity increases through the supply chains, are baked in now so they won’t reverse.”

Dover debacle

Tensions remain unresolved between the Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA), responsible for Dover’s port facilities and border control posts (BCPs), and Whitehall, over which of the posts will handle SPS checks on EU imports.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) designated the Sevington inland facility as Dover’s BCP post in November. However, DPHA has continued to protest the decision, claiming Sevington is unprepared to handle the volume of goods needing to be checked, and instead have advocated for Bastion Point BCP to be selected instead.

Last week (27 March), the Guardian reported that DPHA head Lucy Manzano wrote to central government, urging them to reconsider as Sevington’s “infrastructure flaws” and 22-mile distance from the port render it a major safety concern.

She said that choosing Sevington will “undermine our entire British border and biosecurity system, creating an open door for disease and food fraud”, and that the risk of “illegal, unfit, dangerous and diseased” meat products entering the country will increase.

In a statement from mid-March, DPHA reiterated its request that Bastion Point serves as the designated BCP for Dover’s SPS checks. It added that it had received insufficient news from DEFRA on how new checks will work to avoid “putting GB biosecurity at risk and impacting trade”.

In a statement posted to its website (13 March), DPHA named Bastion as “the superior BCP choice for Dover Port” and stated that Sevington “neither has the capacity nor appropriate facilities to accept all SPS goods subject to SPS controls”.

Portsmouth row-back

At the other end of the spectrum, Portsmouth City Council is facing the prospect of decommissioning the port facilities built to cope with incoming BTOM changes, as the volume of checks anticipated is now far fewer than initial projections.

Sky News reported that after spending a £17m government grant and £7m of its own funds on new facilities, continuous changes to border rules over the past two years have rendered them superfluous to requirements, with doubts raised over whether fees generated by the expected volume of checks will cover the £800,000 yearly operating costs.

Mike Sellers, who is both director of Portsmouth International Port and the British Port Association, told Sky News that the facilities will either be reappropriated for commercial purposes or even demolished to make way for a more lucrative project.

However, Portsmouth city councillor and transport lead, Gerald Vernon-Jackson, raised the prospect of the council asking for their £7m investment back.

Describing the situation as a “total and absolute mess”, the Liberal Democrat councillor added that reduced checks at facilities like Portsmouth could compound capacity problem at Dover.

“If we can't afford to keep port health people here all day, every day, to do those examinations then everything will have to come through Dover, and that's enormously risky for this country.

“If Dover is closed for some reason, industrial action or whatever, then the whole country's food is at ransom."   

Industry concerns

A lack of clarity on how checks will affect goods’ movements has also been expressed by those trading in both plants and animal product.

With a lot of discussion centred on animals and animal products, chair of the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) James Barnes warned that there was worryingly little information available about how checks on high-risk plants, such as indoor and outdoor plants for planting, will be carried out.

He told the FT that there’s “an extraordinary amount of detail missing” from government information.

“Without answers and clarity and without any of these processes being able to be properly tested in April, it is unacceptable and irresponsible to proceed as the government intends.”

Adding to the concerns of port operators, the HTA is also worried that the Harwich BCP, which has seven bays dedicated to plant checks, will not be able to cope with the volume of plant imports from the Netherlands, Harwich currently processes 80% of the UK’s plant imports.

Logistic UK’s head of trade, Nicola Mallon, echoed these fears, saying that the organisation’s members are worried about the capacity of the UK’s ports to process perishable goods.

“These are business-critical issues which will impact the movement of goods across the UK’s borders and, potentially, into stores and homes nationwide.”

“Fresh produce cannot be left languishing in vehicles for long periods of time – we need to be able to move it effectively to our customers with as little delay as possible.”