A Norfolk tulip grower has told his local newspaper that he has begun stockpiling tulip bulbs from the Netherlands ahead of Brexit.
Belmont Nurseries in Terrington St Clement, near Kings Lynn, is the largest grower of outdoor tulips in the UK, producing some 75 million bulbs a year. However, Nursery Director Mark Eves has warned that the uncertainty surrounding the UK’s future trading relationship with the EU has led him to build up a “buffer” of Dutch bulbs.
“The bulbs are very sensitive to not having fresh air blown through them when you are storing them,” explained Mark. “So if hearing the horror stories of one piece of paperwork at the ports costing us an extra 24 hours to get a lorry through that is going to cause some major issues.
“So we have brought forward a lot of what we were going to import to ensure that they are here and if there are any problems at the ports we have that buffer until such time as it is sorted out. As with anything if you know what problems you have got you tend to deal with them. It sounds very simplistic on a horrendously complex thing, but this not knowing is not causing us any benefits at all. The uncertainty isn’t good for confidence in the country or trade in general.”
Photo Credit: Vera Kratochvil / Public Domain Pictures