![]() “This year, we took all the trees from Denmark instead and exported them to Ireland,” Mr Kristensen said. 'We took all the trees from Denmark instead' The farm is the largest in the UK and produces 250,000 trees a year.īefore Brexit, 4,000 trees would be exported from Scotland to Northern Ireland where they would be sold in shops such as Tesco and Homebase. Kjeld Kristensen is managing director of Gejlager, a Danish Christmas tree grower, which owns Drynie Woodlands in Inverness-shire, Scotland. Why ship from Scotland to Northern Ireland when they can run down to London and make twice as much money?”Īlthough some British trees were still being imported, EU suppliers have been making up the shortfall. He added: “The hauliers are just not interested. Hauliers were ignoring Northern Ireland rather than deal with the “pain in the backside” of the necessary paperwork, such as health certificates, and the “risk of being stopped and searched”, he said ![]() That’s where the biggest hit has been, That’s the slack in the system,” Mr Johnston said. “About 8,000 trees would come from Scotland. The remaining 20,000 trees were imported from elsewhere in Europe with most, before Brexit, coming from Scotland. Hauliers were ignoring Northern Ireland rather than deal with the necessary paperwork Roughly 65 per cent of the remaining 85,000 trees for the Northern Irish market come from Ireland, he said. ![]() Mr Johnston said that about 100,000 real Christmas trees are sold each year in Northern Ireland and domestic growers meet about 15 per cent of that demand. It argues it has a chilling effect on British trade and is causing “trade diversion” causing supply chains to shift to EU suppliers. The UK has demanded the Protocol be renegotiated. They see us as the battleground, I suppose,” said Mr Johnston, who runs NI Farm Forestry, the largest producer in Northern Ireland. “They've actually over this year been quite aggressive in targeting Northern Ireland. There are fears in the province that Northern Irish growers could be muscled out of their home market by Irish businesses, who would look to take advantage of the dual access to UK and EU markets that the Protocol brings. ‘They’ve been quite aggressive - they see us as the battleground’ Irish suppliers were in a strong position to step up and make the supply shortfall, said Tony Johnston, the former chair of the Irish Christmas Tree Growers Association. It is the first Christmas under the new customs arrangements, which came into force in Dec 2020. Growers in Britain and Northern Ireland said Scottish exports of real Christmas trees were hit because of red tape for non-EU imports. The Northern Ireland Protocol means the country continues to follow some EU rules, including for plant and tree health, to prevent a hard Irish border.
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