BCP Case Study: Laxsjon Plants

30 April 2024 marked the introduction of new plants and plant products checks for goods imported from the EU (excluding Ireland), Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Henk Huijsman, director of Laxsjon Plants in the Netherlands, explains how the first day of the new plant controls went for his business.

At Laxsjon Plants, we have been exporting our goods to the UK for seven years but with a previous company I was doing this for 27 years, so I have been exporting plants to the UK for 34 years. The type of plants and plant products we export encompasses all forestry and hedging plants, herbaceous plants, trees and roses. Our goods are destined for nurseries to use for growing on or for use on landscaping projects.

We have been aware of the new plant checks for more than a year, so we have been able to make preparations for the new rules that came into force on 30 April. Some of this preparation involved changes to our software as well as logistics changes for each consignment to ensure inspectors have a clear view of what is contained in the trailer, ready for inspection.

When our consignment arrived at Felixstowe Border Control Point (BCP) on the 30 April, from the moment the trailer arrived at its departure, we had nothing but a positive experience. We had some high-risk plants as part of the consignment, but all checks went smoothly. All in all, the entire process on the day took less than 30 minutes. The communication we received from the Port Authority/APHA on the status of our consignment was nothing short of perfect. In addition, we encountered no issues when pre-notifying our consignment on IPAFFS. We were used to using the previous system of Place of Destination (PoD) for plant checks, but we understand this is the new framework and it is working well so far.

On the first day of the new plant health checks, we were anticipating lots of problematic issues; we were even advised to wait a few weeks before exporting any plants just in case there were first day issues which would need to be ironed out. We decided to take the plunge and send a full consignment as usual to our customer base and it seems to have worked out well.