Post-Brexit rules makes buying plants ‘impossible’ in Northern Ireland, MPs say

Debate hears one garden centre finds it easier to import plants from Japan than Scotland due to Windsor Framework protocol.

By contributor Harry Taylor, PA Political Staff
Published
A consumer picks up a plant at a garden centre
The horticulture sector in Northern Ireland made £70 million in 2023, MPs were told (Andrew Matthews/AP)

Gardeners in Northern Ireland are still struggling to get hold of seeds and saplings because of post-Brexit rules, MPs have said.

The Windsor Framework protocol means some are finding it “impossible” to buy seeds for plants from Great Britain, with one MP reflecting that a garden centre in County Antrim had found it easier to get supplies from Japan than Scotland.

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MP for South Antrim Robin Swann said the manager of Colemans in Ballyclare had been met with a “wall of bureaucracy” when he tried to order from a Scottish supplier.

He said: “They have actually said for one of its suppliers based in Scotland, who got a new contract in Japan, that it is easier for that Scottish supplier to send plants to Japan than it is 14 miles across the water to Northern Ireland.

“Richard Fry, who is the manager of Colemans, has said when they engaged with that supplier they just see a wall that they come up against, that bureaucracy where they have to name everything that’s on a pallet and in the trailer.”