Scottish salmon industry urges ministers to act over Dover delays

theguardian.com:

The Scottish salmon industry has called on ministers to urgently intervene to stop Brexit-related delays to the transportation of fresh fish to France.

It comes after the Brexit opportunities minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg, admitted he was wrong to say there would be no delays at the port of Dover caused by the UK leaving the EU.

Tavish Scott, chief executive of trade body Scottish Salmon, held a meeting with the fisheries minister Victoria Prentis on Tuesday morning after fish became stuck in the gridlock on Kent roads a fortnight ago.

“Fresh salmon from Scotland will normally arrive in France the following morning, but in recent weeks there have been delays of up to 48 hours due to queues on the UK side of the Channel – and there are concerns of repeat problems,” the organisation said in a statement.

Normally fresh salmon would be available to the chefs in France, the biggest market, within three days of harvesting. But the industry says the past two weeks have seen days when it has been unable to get fish into France at all.

Before Brexit, hauliers could transport their product across the Channel without any checks.

Now all food has to be accompanied by customs and health and safety documentation, with fish directed to Boulogne-sur-Mer, near Calais, where mandatory controls, including checking veterinary certificates, are conducted.

A spokesman for Scottish Salmon said the fishing industry model was selling fresh fish on “day one for consumption on day three”.

But the delays on the Kent roads have meant delays of up to four days – and sometimes the loss of entire sales.

“We had one day where we could not get any fresh into France at all,” the spokesman added. “These are perishable products. Unlike a tin of beans they cannot be