LONDON, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Post-Brexit red tape is already raising the prices of fruit, vegetables and plants at London's historic New Covent Garden Market by up to 10 percent, the London-based Evening Standard newspaper has reported.
Traders and top restaurateurs warned that Londoners would register the impact on their plates and in their wallets once hospitality fully reopens and chefs have to pivot toward cheaper produce, while putting up prices, the newspaper reported.
Every palette of plants imported to the market from Europe will now cost consumers 10 percent more, with a 3 percent to 5 percent increase in the cost of a palette of fresh fruit or vegetables, according to the newspaper.
The New Covent Garden Market is the largest wholesale fruit, vegetable and flower market in Britain.
More than half the British companies importing or exporting goods through the European Union (EU) border have suffered delays this month, largely because of post-Brexit paperwork, according to a survey reported by the Financial Times newspaper.
Nearly a quarter, or 23 percent, believe they will run low on stock in the next few weeks unless the border situation improves, according to the survey of supply chain managers by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, a Britain-based global procurement and supply organisation.
The delays have been prompted by a combination of bureaucratic requirements now that Britain has left the EU and extra protocols to deal with COVID-19.
Britain and the EU have reached a deal for their post-Brexit trade relations. The free trade deal is the biggest bilateral trade deal signed by either side, covering trade worth around 668 billion pounds (about 917.1 billion U.S. dollars).
Britain is the EU's third largest trading partner in goods, following the United States and China. Enditem