"I'm losing a fortune" - Shellfish haulier forced to set up Spanish business to avoid new trade barriers

The decision to delay new border controls for EU goods imported into the UK has made business for shellfish hauliers much harder, according to an Aberdeen operator.

Allan Miller, owner of AM Shellfish, said it was now in the process of setting up a company in Spain in an attempt to get around the “absolutely crazy” paperwork and expense it was experiencing.

Miller, who runs three artics out of an Inverurie operating centre, told motortransport.co.uk in January that the government’s post-Brexit agreement with the EU was a shambles, but he said the situation had now deteriorated further: “It’s costing me a fortune,” he said.

“We are changing what we are doing and setting up a business in Spain.

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“I can sell through my own company, distribute to all my customers and get over the Customs barriers.”

Miller said the decision to delay import checks had taken the pressure off businesses on the continent: “There was a six-month notice period and so everybody was gritting their teeth, but the UK government has now given them a year so they don’t have to do anything until next year.”

He added: “My business could not sustain what they are asking me to do. There’s been no help, nothing.”

Luke Pollard, Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said the issues the shellfish sector were facing were not teething problems, but the result of a bad post-Brexit deal: “Whilst I support people eating more British fish, this in itself will not save the industry from going under because of the poor deal that’s been achieved over our exit from the EU,” he said.