We are now twelve months in with Brexit and some media outlets have been in contact to see if everything is as bad I said it would be. Here is my final thread on the reality of Brexit after 12 months and whatβs coming in 2022. 1/19
Since Brexit started excise goods (Alcohol, Cigarettes, other taxed goods) have been subject to the full Brexit regulations and checks that 95% of all other goods have not had to worry about in 2021. 2/19
Therefore the wine industry is very aware of the problems that everyone else will face in just 8 days from now. Moreover itβs why we are nearly fully stocked going into January but had to start that process back in October. 3/19
Itβs about to get a lot harder because HMRC requires all goods to be pre advised from January 1st. But what does that actually mean? It means that every import must have a U.K. entry number, this is where it gets complicated. 4/19
CHIEF (U.K. importation computer system (built in the 80s)) creates an βentry numberβ for every declaration. Each declaration requires up to 56 pieces of information to validate. 5/19
To validate you need to know the senders address, Rex number, EORI number, Excise number, your EORI number, the cost of transportation, the weight, type of packaging, commodity code, type of declaration (CPC) and of course any tax payable. 6/19
Once you have all that information you then need to ensure your suppliers understand the rules, have done the right declarations to exit the EU, the goods get a MRN number & know the port of exit BEFORE the goods leave the country of origin. 7/19
If your suppliers and you have got all of that done correctly then both set of documents must be stuck to the actual pallet/consignment so that both EU and U.K. customs can check the documents are correct. 8/19
Finally if the goods are excise suspended and going to a bonded warehouse (as much wine does) you also need a U.K. ARC number which is created on a different system via HMRC Gateway under EMCS U.K. Another two registrations required right there. 9/19
So folks there you have it, from just one document (pre Brexit) the supplier would create, to several barriers to trade which many will have no idea about on both side of the channel despite this coming into force in 8 days. 10/19
So one year on with us doing all of the above where are the issues? The fact is the system is so complicated that we seldom have everything done correctly by the suppliers first time round, it normally takes two or three versions to get it right. 11/19
Transportation companies are now in the habit (rightly so) of not even collecting stock until all documents are correct. The average lead times have gone from 1 week to 8 and the worst we see from the EU is 12 weeks. 12/19
Now I run a wine company which is not perishable goods and if it gets delayed the product is still fine when it arrives. But for fruit and veg and all the other perishable goods I dread to think how companies will cope. 13/19
With any business who are not up to speed they simply will not cope and even when you do get it right your suppliers must also be on their A game too. A supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link. 14/19
We have seen over 2021 the paperwork we send is often removed by drivers (who donβt know its importance) and this canβt happen in 8 days. 15/19
To conclude I simply donβt see how such a steep learning curve for both suppliers and importers will go well, the wine industry as you will see from retailers shelves is barely coping after 12 months of Brexit. Gaps are plentiful. 16/19
The wine industry now works on three month lead times and more often than not this is not long enough. Itβs even worse with American wines. Stock that collected in July still hasnβt arrived in my warehouse. So the issues are global. 17/19
Brexit simply isnβt working and those that have been dealing with the full version on excise goods can see the impending plane crash. I dearly hope I am wrong but thus far I have been correct on my factual analysis. 18/19
Despite the bleak situation I would like to finish on a positive. Even with all the barriers to trade this week 4 pallets from Spain did turn around from collection to delivery in just 7 days. This is the only delivery in 2021 to achieve this. #Brexit 19/19.
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Here is a little thread about how the world sees the uk. Iβm currently in Mexico at a global wine event. The hospitality and welcome that has been shown to all the delegates is incredible. But the one point that everyone I have spoken to is that Brexit has isolated the UK.
At this event there are 45 nationalities in attendance from all over the world π. There are a total of 330 trade professionals in total. So itβs a very solid group to get a global view. Iβve spoken to many people thus far & that been amazing. The wine trade is a global village.
The comments from everyone has been the same regarding the UK, why did the UK leave such an important trading block and this must be hurting your businesses and economy badly.
Whilst the trade I work in is seriously pissed off about the the Alcohol Reform system,which is due to come into effect in February 2025, I & all my piers in industry have thus far been unable to explain to the wider public why it will be such a shit storm. Iβm going to try here.
Excise on wine is not the most exciting subject but the inability to import wine and the likely market collapse would be very bad for millions of people and kill off thousands of hospitality businesses. But this is the reality the wine trade is facing.
Back in 2019 one of the Prohibitionist think tanks funded by the hard right wing of the Tory party (based on Tufton St) was looking how they could use Brexit to change the way excise could be charged differently on Alcohol.
A quick thread on something I didnβt think would be an issue due to Brexit, but now is. Jersey/Guernsey as we all know are British overseas territories technically. Whilst they are only 50 miles from the Mainland, but how are supplies going from the UK to them?
Well again technically itβs an export to supply wine or anything else to the Channel Islands from the UK. Odd but that how itβs been for quite some time. Now you would think the UK government would never forget about the UK overseas territories. After all there British!
Sadly not the case with Brexit and the UK export system CDS. Even as I type this thread I canβt quite believe the programmers fucked it up this so badly and the government launched with this problem, but hey Tories couldnβt give a shit as we all know.
I donβt know if anyone else has noticed but all the Brexit types are getting all excited about a bit of news regarding services and the UK being 4th in the world. Whilst thatβs lovely it equally demonstrates perfectly how these people just donβt get the bigger picture.
The world and to a smaller degree, Europe, produces everything that in a modern world people want/need. Itβs not possible for all countries to make/produce everything that everyone wants. This is fairly basic stuff so far.
So countries trade with each other. An easy example is the UK buying lemons from Spain and Spain buying whiskey from Scotland. Neither country can make that product. So you have trade.
Back in Jan 21 I got a lot of attention due to my tweets going viral. 3 years one I thought I would use the power of hindsight to see if my tweets were right and if #Brexit is the unmitigated catastrophe many in the remain camp said it would be.
For Wine itβs nearly had the full #Brexit exposure being goods that attract huge amounts of revenue for the UK Government. We have the last transition in February β25 to look forward to when excise taxes become βunworkableβ. But what actually happened so far.
Well I took a look back to June 23rd 2016 at one of our top selling wines. This Chardonnay at the time was retailing for Β£8.99 with most of our customers. After the ref result to adjust for the drop in the value of the Β£ the price increased Β£0.50 shortly after on retail.
Three years ago @RishiSunak, a tee-total chancellor at the time, came up with the notion that all alcoholic beverages are the same and are made in the same way. What he actually did is start something that will destroy the uk wine industry. Here is why.
Many people will have never thought about how pretty much every they consume gets to that retail environment, nor should they, itβs not that exciting. However #Brexit was the game changer where continuing shortages have led people to question where products come from.
We all know that placing barriers in the way of free flowing goods isnβt a good idea, the more barriers in the way the more expensive goods become and importers like me go through endless pain to deal with Brexit related paperwork that didnβt previously exist.