Brexit issues force firm to halt trade with Europe

The firm, based at the Shropshire Food Enterprise Centre in Battlefield, has been told by its two couriers they will not currently pick up any of its goods bound for Europe due to legislation problems.

It has been reported that couriers have cited incorrectly filed customs documentation as the reason behind the suspension of some of their services. But Purition MD Edward Taylor said: “This is nothing to do with paperwork and we as a small business can fill out the paperwork.

“We use two couriers – DPD, Europe’s largest parcel carrier, and DHL, the world’s largest parcel carrier. Neither of those two companies will pick up goods bound for Europe, which affectively means trade with Europe has stopped.

“This isn’t just us, this is all companies using two of the world’s largest couriers, yet it is all being blamed on our inability to fill in the paperwork.”

London and Brussels agreed a last minute trade deal in December which averted border tariffs, but many companies, particularly smaller ones, have warned that the deal has thrown up new obstacles to trade that are killing business.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson argued that Britain would be free to trade globally once it had cast off the shackles of the EU and has said the bureaucratic snags are teething problems.

“I looked at my sales reports for January and I have got lines of zeros for all the European countries where normally we would have sales from. At the moment it is not threatening any jobs but it will do if it continues,” Mr Taylor added.

“Fifty per cent of our clients are happy to wait and 50 per cent we have had to refund. About 15 per cent of our business is outside the UK. It was certainly an area of business which we forecasted for growth, Brexit or not.

“We have written to MPs and I am going to try and contact Liz Truss directly. This is not a question of paperwork, we are being prevented from exporting anything.”

A spokesperson for DHL Express said: “We’re seeing a high number of shipments requiring veterinary and phytosanitary checks being held by customs authorities in the EU. As a result, we are not currently carrying shipments from Great Britain to consumer recipients in the EU, where special veterinary and phytosanitary control formalities are required.

“This does not affect goods being shipped to businesses or veterinary and phytosanitary shipments that do not require control formalities (such as authorisations or licenses). We hope that the challenges associated with these types of shipments are resolved soon and we can resume carrying them on behalf of our customers as quickly as possible.”