Several shellfish businesses have got in touch to explain why DEFRA's plan to build purification tanks in the UK won't revive live exports to the EU
Purification reduces shelf life and even if it didn't they'd need tanks as big as swimming pools, they say politicshome.com/news/article/s…
So yday Eustice told me that DEFRA would use some of the £100m fishing fund to let shellfish businesses build their own purification tanks in time for winter trading
This would allow them to depurate mussels, cockles etc before sending them to EU
As Devon-based mussel exporter John Holmyard explained, purification reduces shelf life and his exports would die before or soon after arriving in Europe
Or as James Green, an Oyster exporter in Kent put it: buyers "in France do not want purified oysters" politicshome.com/news/article/s…
The tanks...
They need to be huge and much bigger than anything currently in the UK to depurate EU exports on demand
"Government can give me money to go build an airport, but that doesn’t mean I can do it"
James Wilson, a mussels exporter in Wales, said the shellfish industry told DEFRA a few wks ago that building purification tanks in the UK wasn't a solution
Cumbrian cockle trader Rob Benson said the tanks would be "as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike" politicshome.com/news/article/s…
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Frost has asked officials to review the timetable for introducing checks on EU goods, as @tobyhelm & @Joe_Mayes have reported
There's "real nervousness" within HMG that delays could derail the reopening of hospitality and lead to empty supermarket shelves politicshome.com/news/article/b…
Frost is expected to put plans to potentially postpone checks on EU imports to Cabinet colleagues this week, potentially as soon as today
"There would've been a full-blown crisis in NI in January had restaurants been open... same sort of thinking could play out for EU-UK flows," said @ColdChainShane
Exclusive: The shellfish industry claims that DEFRA admitted it was wrong about shellfish exports
"They now say that they believe on balance that the EU view, that the trade is not legal, is in fact correct," the bombshell email seen by PoliticsHome says politicshome.com/news/article/s…
"They [DEFRA] have now changed this position," the email sent to shellfish exporters says
"This is in complete contrast to everything they have told us so far"
Labour: "are they incompetent or do they simply not care?"
New: Here is the letter George Eustice sent to the European Commission’s Stella Kyriakides this morning about UK shellfish exports to the EU, first reported by PoliticsHome on Friday
Eustice says the UK's live shellfish exports to the EU have "been in place for many years" and the new rules - live shellfish caught in most waters barred EU entry - are of "grave concern" to businesses
The UK has high standards and EU customers trust its business, he argues
Eustice accuses the EU of changing its position on shellfish, citing advice the UK received in September
That's it's "unexpected and difficult news for an industry that relies on trade between the UK & EU"
Reminder: EU says rules apply to all 3rd countries, have done for years