Organic imports are being held up at UK ports by a “bureaucratic nightmare”, according to one importer.

Clive Lawrance of Exotics Farm Produce said the whole process of importing organics was failing because of a lack of communication between port customs and Defra, the body in charge of the EU directives on importing organics.

“There is no consistency around the ports as to the actions which should be taken regarding organics,” Lawrance claimed.

And UK operators are bearing the brunt of Defra’s shortcomings, both in terms of time and expense, he said: “As an operator/importer we have to pay a fairly large sum of money to be on the (Organic Certification) scheme, and to use the ports and then we have to endure lengthy delays trying to get certification before we can bring in the products.”

According to Lawrance the EU had planned to abandon the current organics scheme before the end of 2005. But in the absence of an alternative system, it has been rolled out until 2006.

“Consequently there is a bevy of people trying to rush their certification payments through to Defra but they are not getting their certificates because Defra can’t cope with the added volume, which is a barrier to moving the produce through the ports,” he said.

The inefficiency has been occurring since the scheme was introduced several years ago but has recently come to the fore, he claimed.

In addition Lawrance warned that the Port Authorities’ unwillingness to accommodate importers and their disregard for procedures could be compromising the quality of product destined for major retailers.

“They say things like ‘can’t you bring the product in earlier because we go home if we haven’t got much work’, and when products come in they don’t really inspect them, they only look at the certificates to see if they are on the database,” he claimed.

Lawrance said the Soil Association has admitted that the system is only working for one or two companies while most, like Exotic Farm Produce, feel that Defra has been failing the industry.

He said he has been pressing Defra’s organic certification department to respond to his allegations and implement a standardised CFSP (Customs Freight Simplified Procedure).

Lawrance plans to see the issue raised in parliament: “Somebody has to bring Defra to task on this,” he claimed.

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