UK/EU SPS deal will slash red tape and eliminate costly routine checks for fruit, vegetable, flower and plant traders across the country.
- The upcoming UK/EU SPS deal will slash red tape and eliminate costly routine checks for fruit, vegetable, flower and plant traders across the country.
- The deal will boost the vital £38 billion UK environmental horticulture industry alone, supporting an estimated 722,000 jobs.
- Agreement will reverse the hit to trade since Brexit, forging strategic new trade links with our largest agri-food market.
Today (16 July 2025), EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds met with traders at New Covent Garden Market in London-the UK's largest wholesale market for fruit, vegetables, flowers and plants-to talk about the issues they have faced getting their produce in and out of the country since 2020.
Home to over 137 businesses generating a combined annual turnover of £944 million and supporting over 2,500 jobs, the historic 37-acre market site in Nine Elms supplies up to 40% of all fresh produce consumed outside the home in London and supplies 75% of all London florists.
Following the inaugural UK-EU Summit in May, Britain's florists, greengrocers, plant traders and garden centres are now set to benefit from a food and plant deal with the EU, which will remove barriers to trading flowers, fruit, and vegetables. It will add more than £5 billion a year to the UK economy and increase UK agricultural exports by around 16%.
Since leaving the EU, UK agri-food exports to the bloc are down 21% and imports down 7% (2018-2024). Many businesses in the horticulture sector have scaled back or stopped trading altogether due to increased costs, paperwork and delays at borders. Some products, like fresh burgers and sausages, cannot be traded at all, while others are subject to burdensome checks.
EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas Symonds said:
This Government is working to make the UK safer, more secure and more prosperous. That's why we have negotiated a new partnership with the EU.
Day in and day out, I hear more stories from businesses - all over the country - about how the current arrangements simply don't work. Our agreement with the EU will get food and flowers into and out of the country faster, saving businesses precious time and money.
Britain will once again take pride in being a nation of shopkeepers, well-stocked, open for business and ready to trade across Europe.
Fran Barnes, Chief Executive, at the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) said:
The Minister's visit, to hear first-hand from HTA members and businesses on the challenges they face on a daily basis as a result of border friction, is both welcome and timely. The 19 May commitment to deliver an ambitious and comprehensive new UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement, inclusive of plants, could not be more welcome, nor come soon enough.
We urge both sides to work with us and quickly, to get the detail settled and to deliver real change for growers, gardeners, and garden centres across the country. The current border regime has and continues to cause uncertainty and huge cost on our members' businesses.
We are optimistic about what can be achieved through a new SPS agreement and want to work proactively and in partnership to ensure our sector has a strong voice in shaping an outcome that safeguards biosecurity, restores business confidence, and supports long-term competitiveness for us here and for our supply-chains.
At the first UK/EU Summit in May, the UK and the EU agreed to slash costs and red tape for businesses that trade food and plant products with the EU. As part of a deal, phytosanitary certificates will be scrapped, saving firms around £25 per certificate, as will routine border checks on goods. It will also cut paperwork and save businesses time on admin.
The UK imported £748.2 million of plants and plant material last year; 99% of these imports came from EU countries.
This agreement will have no time limit, giving vital certainty to businesses. It will also bring significant benefits to goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which will see fewer checks at the border.
