Are you ready for yellow mealworm finger foods, with mealworms coated in icing sugar? Perhaps chocolate would be best, given that mealworms are said to taste a little like peanuts. How about a smoothie? Or would you just settle for the powder form, to be used in baking? This is the new reality now that the European Union has declared mealworms as safe for human consumption.
The declaration has been made by the EU food safety agency, as reported by The Guardian. This came about after a French insect-for-food production company Agronutris requested approval. This decision means that mealworms will shortly be appearing on grocery store shelves.
One of twelve winning designs from the ‘New symbol for Europe’ competition. Design by Rachel Graham
Rachel Graham
The safety panel concluded: “There are no safety concerns regarding the stability of the novel food (NF) if the NF complies with the proposed specification limits during its entire shelf life.”
Agronutris is biotech company specializing in rearing and transforming insects into proteins for animal nutrition. To add to the recommended array of animals, humans can now be added.
According to Bloomberg, Arcluster predicts that the insects-as-food-market will grow tenfold to exceed $4.1 billion globally by 2025. This is due to insects emerging as a more sustainable source of protein. This is due to the lower environmental impact. In addition, many insect farms are starting to attract high-levels of venture-capital financing. As reviewed by Wired, there are three primary outputs from insect farming. These are: Protein, fats and insect manure (called frass, used as a fertiliser). It is with protein that the biggest profits can be made.
What are mealworms?
Mealworms are the larval form of the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor. This is a species of darkling beetle. The life-stages are: Egg, larva, pupa, and adult beetle. T. molitor is a pest of grain, flour and food stores.
Meal-worms consume Styrofoam, which could be the answer for biodegrading plastic and Styrofoam products.
Yu Yang, Et. Al.
What is of interest in terms of the food source are the larvae. This form measures approximately 2.5 cm in length. The numbers are plentiful; over its lifetime the female beetle lays around 500 eggs. In the industrial context, for making pet food, companies specializing in this field often add a juvenile hormone to the feed of the worm. This helps to hold the mealworm in the larval stage. Hormone additives can also help the larvae to grow slightly bigger.
Source of nutrients
The mealworm’s main components are protein, fat, and fibre (chitin). The reason there is a level of interest is because the mealworm provides a sustainable and low carbon-emission source of food and one that might help with sustainability projects and reduce the reliance upon rearing animals for food, plus the environmental impact that goes with this.
Fried crickets, roasted cockroach, honey-flavoured ants, mealworm and chocolate coated popcorn are now available to try and buy in Australia’s cities — and while the cuisine remains a novelty, there are signs it is growing in popularity
ANDREW MURRAY, AFP
Mealworms have been eaten for centuries in many Asian countries. However, in other parts of the world the idea is not popular. This could be about to change.
One driver is the nutrient value. With each 100 grams of raw mealworm larvae, this contains 206 calories and up to 25 grams of protein. Essential minerals consist of potassium, copper, sodium, selenium, iron and zinc. Researchers also found levels of vitamin B12 to be 1.08 µg/100 g for the yellow mealworm.
This rich array of nutrients is not found in all insects. The nutritional values of edible insects are highly variable, not least because of the wide variety of species.
Solving world hunger
Entomophagy (or anthropo-entomophagy) describes the practice of eating insects and it has advocates in relation to overall nutrient value, solving hunger and tackling climate change. It is estimate there are some 1,900 edible insect species worldwide.
Tackling hunger crises in South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen requires $4.4 billion – UN.
UN - UNICEF/Rich
A greater consumption of insects not only has environmental adherents, but there are also advocates who argue that a greater consumption of insects can help to address world hunger. For instance, the United nations published a report called ‘Edible Insects’ in 2013. This report set put the case for insects to provide enough food for a growing population–insects are a great source of protein.
Allergic reactions
Not everyone can consume mealworms. Aside from vegetarians and vegans, for those with a prawn or dust mite allergy, there are some risks in a similar reaction occurring when the mealworm larvae are digested. This is either in complete or powder form.
Prawns are both sold directly and to other distributors as a result of this slave labor.
Thamizhpparithi Maari
Furthermore, there have been several cases of skin reaction, eye itching or asthma have been related when people were in contact with mealworms.
Safety issues
A typical freezer
by magnetisch
To make pet food, mealworms are often killed by freezing. However, with those insects destined for human consumption these are first sterilized in hot water and then are refrigerated or freeze-dried. However, global regulations will vary.
Essential Science
This article forms part of Digital Journal’s long-running Essential Science series, where new research items relating to wider science stories of interest are presented by Dr. Tim Sandle on a weekly basis.
Marine debris litters a beach on Laysan Island in the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, where it washed ashore.
Susan White / US Fish and Wildlife Service (CC BY 2.0)
Last week, looking at COVID-19 from an environmental perspective, we asked what has been the effect of the pandemic upon the environment? The results, we found, were mixed, depending upon which aspect of ecology is examined.
The week before we considered the six COVID-19 vaccines for which certain national regulatory authorities have authorized the use, plus the many potential COVID-19 vaccine candidates currently in development. With this level of activity, we posed and answered the question: How are these vaccines developed?
The European Union’s Ambassador to Israel, Emanuele Giaufret, congratulated Ambassador Eitan Na’eh on Sunday evening for the opening of Israel’s newly opened Embassy in Abu-Dhabi.
“Normalization will benefit regional stability,” Giaufret added in a tweet.
PARIS — Romain Rozier’s cafe should be bankrupt by now.
Since the coronavirus hit last spring, sales at the once buzzing lunch spot in northern Paris are down 80 percent. The only customers on a recent day were a couple of UberEats couriers and a handful of people spaced far apart at the counter, ordering takeout.
“We’re at death’s door,” Mr. Rozier said, tallying the 300 euros ($365) he had made from the lunch shift, well below the €1,200 he used to pull in. “The only reason we haven’t gone under is because of financial aid.”
France and other European countries are spending enormous sums to keep businesses afloat during the worst recession since World War II. But some worry they’ve gone too far; bankruptcies are plunging to levels not seen in decades.
While the aid has prevented a surge in unemployment, the largess risks turning swaths of the economy into a kind of twilight zone where firms are swamped with debt they cannot pay off but receiving just enough state aid to stay alive — so-called zombie companies. Unable to invest or innovate, these firms could contribute to what the World Bank recently described as a potential “lost decade” of stagnant economic growth caused by the pandemic.
“We need to get off of all of these subsidies at some point — otherwise, we’ll have a zombie economy,” said Carl Bildt, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former prime minister of Sweden.
Bankruptcies fell 40 percent last year in France and Britain, and were down 25 percent on average in the European Union. Without government intervention, including billions in state-backed loans and subsidized payrolls, European business failures would have almost doubled last year, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private American organization.
At the Commercial Court of Paris, Judge Patrick Coupeaud, who has handled bankruptcy cases for nearly a decade, sees the difference. “I have about a third fewer people coming to me, because many troubled businesses are being helped by the state,” he said, gesturing to the court’s nearly empty colonnaded marble halls.
By contrast, Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in the United States rose in the third quarter to the highest level since the 2010 financial crisis, a trend that is expected to continue in 2021, according to an index compiled by the U.S. law firm Polsinelli.
President Biden has proposed a new $1.9 trillion rescue package to combat the economic downturn and the Covid-19 crisis, and last week, the government reported that 900,000 Americans had filed new unemployment claims.
Those statistics are shaping a debate over whether Europe’s strategy of protecting businesses and workers “at all costs” will cement a recovery, or leave economies less competitive and more dependent on government aid when the pandemic recedes.
“Parts of the misery have only been delayed,” said Bert Colijn, chief eurozone economist at the Dutch bank ING. He added that there would be “a catch-up in bankruptcies” and a spike in unemployment whenever support measures were withdrawn.
Analysts say the government programs are already seeding the economy with thousands of inefficient businesses with low productivity, high debt and a high prospect of default once low interest rates normalize.
An estimated 10 percent of companies in France were saved from bankruptcy because of government funds, according to Rexecode, a French economic think tank.
Letting unviable businesses go under, while painful, will be essential for allowing competitive sectors to thrive, said Jeffrey Franks, the head of the International Monetary Fund’s mission for France.
A wave of bankruptcies “is not something that’s necessarily so bad,” he said. “It’s part of the normal creative destruction process of regenerating economies.”
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is urging governments to fine-tune their support measures to ensure a revival in growth. “Failure to do so could hinder the recovery by trapping resources in nonproductive ‘zombie firms’ and jobs,” the organization said in a recent assessment.
Most European governments planned to end support last autumn, figuring the coronavirus would be under control. But a second wave of cases has filled hospitals, followed by faster-spreading variants of the virus, all leading to extensions in aid. The European Union late last year approved a recovery package worth €2 trillion.
In France, the investments are seen as a way of buying social stability by preventing mass unemployment. The finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has pledged to maintain the support “as long as the crisis lasts,” a strategy that he described as adding “spirituality” to the economy.
Almost no businesses are being left out of the largess if they lobby hard enough — not even French escargot farmers, who recently won a battle for limited financial aid while restaurants that are their main buyers stay closed.
As governments’ Covid debts skyrocket, European fiscal rules have been suspended. France is among several countries declaring that they don’t plan to pay down the enormous bill until the economy has mended.
For now, financial aid is preventing the collapse of many once-healthy firms whose main misfortune was the pandemic. At the Paris Commercial Court, Judge Coupeaud said the measures had helped avoid a domino effect by encouraging businesses to use state-backed loans and other aid to pay suppliers and debts.
France’s bankruptcy system is unlike those in other countries, in that it encourages troubled companies to come forward before default and offers help in negotiating with creditors.
“Failure is not a word that the French like to use,” said Dominique-Paul Vallée, the judge at the court in charge of helping business owners avoid bankruptcy. “We prefer to say we are saving companies.” He added that there had been a sharp rise in firms going to him for help.
Those that did file for bankruptcy protection in 2020 tended to be big companies with large work forces, such as the retailer Camaïeu, with 3,900 workers, and Alinea, a furniture maker with 2,000 employees. That was a shift from the small and medium-size business cases that the court typically hears.
Still, the safety net extends only so far. Countless businesses face mounting debts, declining profitability and a limited capacity to invest the longer the pandemic lasts.
Mr. Rozier is a case in point. He started his organic-themed cafe, Make Your Lunch, in 2016 in a bustling business and cultural district. The concept was so successful that he opened a second cafe near the high-traffic Paris Opera.
After the pandemic hit, business plunged as offices that housed thousands of workers stood empty and remained largely unoccupied most of the year.
The government helped pay the bulk of his employees’ salaries, and Mr. Rozier got a low-interest €30,000 state-backed loan with payments deferred until May, which the government last week extended for a year. After a new national lockdown in October, restaurants like his got an additional €10,000 a month in direct aid.
But that money hasn’t made up for months of lost sales. “My treasury is drained,” said Mr. Rozier, who sold his cafe near the opera in the summer and spent much of the government loan paying off suppliers. With 80 percent fewer clients, he is three months behind on his €4,000 monthly rent, and he struggles to pay social security taxes, electricity and other expenses.
The government allows restaurants to offer takeout only. Mr. Rozier has become an unofficial spokesman for restaurant owners who demand that the government let them seat patrons again, with social distancing, to survive.
After the New Year’s holiday break, he said, his morale slumped when he reopened the business.
“I waited. And I waited. And three people came in the door,” Mr. Rozier said.
“At this point, there is a real danger I will have to close within a couple of months,” he continued. “I’d rather sell the business than have to go to bankruptcy court.”
Two of his friends, also restaurant owners, have already declared bankruptcy.
“There are many more that will follow in their footsteps,” Mr. Rozier said. “That we know for sure.”
Thousands of care workers in the UK risk being criminalised and losing their right to work overnight, according to a new report that issues a stark warning about a lack of knowledge of the EU settlement scheme.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) warns that the care sector faces being “devastated” at a time when it has already been brought to its knees by the coronavirus pandemic, as a large cohort of its workforce are unaware that they need to apply for settled status.
The EU settlement scheme allows EU citizens and their family members living in Britain to apply for a new post-Brexit immigration status. They have until the end of June 2021 to apply, and if they fail to do so they will lose their legal right to reside in the UK and become liable to removal.
Nearly 4.9 million people have so far applied under the scheme, but the total number of EU nationals in Britain is unknown so the Home Office will never know if all those who are eligible to apply have done so. The report warns that even a small fraction of people do not apply, tens or hundreds of thousands of people could lose their immigration status.
The research, which is based on an online survey and in-person interviews with 295 EU care workers, reveals that one in seven surveyed online did not know or were not sure what the EU settlement scheme was, and that one in three were not aware of the deadline.
The figures for those surveyed in-person were more stark, with one in three unaware of the scheme and more than 50 per cent not knowing when the deadline was.
The care industry, which has suffered severe cuts in recent years, employs around 250,000 non-UK nationals who make up 16 per cent of the workforce – 113,000 of whom are EU citizens.
Campaigners said the lack of awareness about the EU settlement scheme stemmed from a number of factors, including a lack of outreach work by the Home Office and a shortage of support to help people apply – which has been further reduced by the loss of face-to-face contact during the pandemic.
Susana Auger, a Portuguese care worker living in Chippenham, who has applied for and been granted settled status, told The Independent that while she was fortunate to have had the skills and support to do so, many of her colleagues did not.
The 49-year-old, who has been in Britain since 2013 and lives with her British husband, said she was not surprised by the report’s findings, citing poor English language skills, a lack of support and inability to access a smartphone as barriers to care workers applying to the scheme.
“There are a lot of care agencies out there that just want the profit. They won’t help the carers to apply for settlement, they are there to make money, and the carers have to sort out their own problems,” she said.
“There are small networks of support here and there, but a lot of people don’t know about them. Lots of people in the sector don’t speak English, which presents another barrier. And many of the houses live-in carers live and work in don’t have broadband, so they can’t access the internet – especially now that most libraries, cafes and pubs are closed.”
Ms Auger called on ministers to improve outreach support for care workers to ensure people apply, adding: “They could do that if they wanted to, and I think they will want the carers to continue to work here. There aren’t enough carers here as it is.”
The Home Office has provided up to £17m to 72 charities across the UK to support people applying to the scheme, but the JCWI said this was “inadequate” and insufficient to meet the need, adding that the reliance on charities and employers to “fill the gaps” was “unrealistic and dangerous”.
Nine in 10 care workers surveyed in-person for the report did not know where to find assistance with the application process, and of those who had received help to apply, 77 per cent said this support was a “quite” or “very” important part of the process.
Karolina Gerlich, executive director of the Care Workers’ Charity, pointed out that the Covid-19 crisis meant the care sector had little time to support and inform employees about the scheme, and workers themselves had little time to think about it.
“This kind of thing isn’t at the forefront of people’s minds. Care workers are working beyond their capacity all the time at the moment because there’s just so much to do. Brexit on top of Covid is already very bad timing, so capacity is particularly low at the moment,” she said.
“The scheme should be extended because we need to give people time to be able to do everything.”
Under the government’s new post-Brexit immigration system, there is a mandatory requirement for visa applicants to have a job offer on a list of eligible occupations, with a minimum salary requirement of £20,480 – meaning most foreign care workers are not eligible.
The report calls on the government to lift the deadline to beyond June in order to ensure care workers do not lose their legal status and rights, and recommends that every EU citizen and family member resident in the UK before the end of December 2020 is granted automatic settled status.
It goes on to warn that the problems are not unique to care workers but will affect EU citizens from all walks of life, particularly those who are vulnerable, including older and disabled people, survivors of domestic abuse, looked-after children, homeless people and Roma communities.
Caitlin Boswell, author of the report and EU citizens project officer at JCWI, said that with the scheme’s deadline less than six months away and the UK still in the middle of a pandemic, ministers must “act now” to prevent EU citizens from losing their right to live in the UK and “providing the services we so rely on”.
She added: “This includes thousands of care workers and others who have worked tirelessly throughout the past year, putting their lives and their families’ lives on the line to get us through this crisis.
“The window of time for EU citizens to apply to the scheme was already extremely short and now Covid has used up around half of that. It couldn’t be more urgent that the government lift the deadline, otherwise tens of thousands of EU citizens face losing their right to remain in June.”
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said the findings were “worrying” and should serve as a “wake-up call” for the Home Office, warning that failure to extend the deadline and renew its effort to raise awareness among care agencies and staff would “risk making an already very difficult situation in social care even worse”.
“Our care system was in bad shape before the pandemic arrived and has taken a terrible hammering over the last ten months. And with more than a hundred thousand vacancies in the care workforce the contributions of European care workers are vital – we need every good care professional we can get,” she added.
Minister for future borders and immigration Kevin Foster said:“This report presents an incredibly misleading picture of the EU settlement scheme it paints given it relies on a small survey of less than 300 people conducted a year ago, since then millions of applications have been received by the scheme.”
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“We have now had almost 4.9 million applications to the hugely successful EU settlement scheme which is terrific news. There is now less than six months before the 30 June 2021 deadline and I would encourage all those eligible to apply now to secure their rights under UK law.
“A wide range of support is available online and over the telephone if you need it and we are funding 72 organisations across the UK to ensure no one gets left behind.”
… World Bank Group, and the European Union signed today a grant agreement … in September 2018 with the European Union to strengthen public financial management … ;s institutions”, said Martin Huth, European Union Ambassador to Iraq.
The project …
AHMEDABAD: The auto driver who had approached the Gujarat high court seeking to be declared an atheist, has filed another petition for permission to not mention caste and religion in the certificates for all those who do not want such details mentioned. For himself, petitioner Rajveer Upadhyay (36), sought directions to the authorities to state “No Religion, No Caste” in his certificates because he does not want to notify the same. Upadhyay, who belongs to the scheduled Garo-Brahmin caste, mentioned in his petition that he has faced many troubles in life due to the discriminatory caste system. For removal of mention of religion and caste from his certificates, Upadhyay once again relied on the certificate issued to one Sneha Vellore by Tamil Nadu authorities and ratified by the Madras high court. He has also sought the removal of the mention of father/husband’s name and surname from certificates if people are not willing to mention them, contending that authorities cannot compel people to mention such details. He has urged the HC to direct concerned authorities to remove these details from his and his daughter’s certificates besides arguing that orphans and women with multiple divorces always face this problem and feel humiliated.
Roma gypsy migrants ordered to leave French territory have been using an EU loophole to avoid deportation, spending just hours across the border in Belgium and then returning.
The association Solidarité Roms Lille Europe has, for the last ten years, brought Roma originally from Romania and Bulgaria across the French border to Belgium after being handed deportation notices by the French government, it is claimed.
After crossing the border, the Roma fulfil their obligation to leave French territory and are given back their passports by the Belgian authorities. They then often simply return to France within a few hours, France Info reports — a process made easy by the European Union’s no-borders Schengen Agreement.
As the Roma are citizens of countries that are part of the European Union, they are allowed to reside in France for three months before having to justify their residency with proof of work, proof they are looking for work, or proof of enrolment in education.
Paris Police Arrest over 1,500 Moroccans in 2018, But Just Six Deported https://t.co/DqNflYOEGu
When the migrants are unable to prove work or study, they are typically handed a deportation order but with the system Solidarité Roms Lille Europe has allegedly taken advantage of, few are actually deported from France permanently.
According to the local authorities in the Northern Prefecture of France, 1,000 deportation orders were handed out in 2020, but Dominique Plancke of Solidarité Roms Lille Europe says the figures do not reflect the reality of the situation.
“These figures are artificially inflated because last year we took 130 people back and these 130 people are still in France today. No-one is fooled,” Plancke boasted.
“Everyone knows — the prefecture, the border police, and us — that they are coming back and that we can do it again in three months. It doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
While the trick used by the Roma involves those with EU passports, France has faced difficulty deporting non-EU migrants as well in recent years.
In 2018, it was revealed that police in Paris arrested over 1,500 illegal Moroccan migrants but were only able to successfully deport six of them at the time.
Last year in February it was also reported that up to 40 per cent of the suspects in crimes in Paris were people born outside France.
The Italian interior Minister has stoked controversy around the issue of Roma Gypsies before https://t.co/tMWk3GJR6Z
UK businesses that export to the EU are reportedly being encouraged by trade officials to set up hubs across the Channel so they can avoid post-Brexit disruption.
Some firms claim they have been advised to set up subsidiary companies in the EU so they can avoid extra paperwork when exporting products into the trade bloc.
One boss of a UK cheese producing company told the BBC he was advised to set-up in Europe to avoid disruption to his EU exports.
Another, the boss of a clothing firm, told the BBC that they had been encouraged to link up with a distribution centre Germany in order to keep exporting to the EU.
It comes after fashion industry experts warned High Street retailers and luxury brands may burn items returned by customers that are now stuck in European warehouses rather than bringing them back to the UK to avoid the cost and hassle of red tape.
The Department for International Trade told MailOnline it was ‘not government policy’ to advise businesses to set-up subsidiaries abroad.
However, co-founder of Macclesfield-based Cheshire Cheese Company, Simon Spurrell, was one of those who claimed he had been told to set up shop in the EU.
Some firms claim they have been advised to set up subsidiary companies in the EU so they can avoid extra paperwork when exporting products into the trade bloc. Pictured: Lorries quieing-up at the Port of Dover on Friday
Co-founder of Macclesfield-based Cheshire Cheese Company, Simon Spurrell (pictured left), was one of those who claimed he had been told to set up shop in the EU. Ulla Vitting Richards (pictured right), told the BBC she had been advised to move her stock to a warehouse in Germany in order to keep exporting to the EU
Mr Spurrell reportedly approached the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for advice over the need for a veterinary-approved health certificates for exports.
The firm was reportedly being asked to pay £180 for the certificates to export gift boxes costing up to £30 each.
What are the extra charges and paperwork and why were they introduced?
Shipping goods either way across the UK-EU border now takes longer and is more expensive since the UK left the EU’s Customs Union and Single Market.
Since January 1 a new customs regime has been in place that treats the UK as an external ‘third country’ for goods being imported and exported into and out of the EU.
Although the terms of the free trade deal mean there are no tariffs or quotas, the small print of the deal imposes new red tape and charges for goods being moved across the border.
Customs clearance charges must now be paid, while many couriers also add on postal or handling fees to account for the extra paperwork they now need to process.
VAT is payable by businesses when they bring goods into the UK. Goods that are exported by UK businesses to the EU are zero-rated, meaning that UK VAT is not charged at the point of sale.
Some goods may need a rules of origin document.
And once they arrive at the ports, there are new checks by officials which also slow down the transport process.
The extra time taken for goods to cross the border means some shipments have been delayed.
That means that in addition to extra fees at the border goods are also taking longer to travel from retailer to customer – complicating the situation further.
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He told the BBC he had been advised to set up a packaging firm across the Channel.
Mr Spurrell said: ‘They told me setting up a fulfilment centre in the EU where we could pack the boxes was my only solution.’
He added that the business was now looking to ‘test the water’ with a business in France, but it had scrapped plans to build a new £1million warehouse in the UK – which he said could have created up to 30 jobs.
Another business owner, Ulla Vitting Richards, told the BBC she had been advised to move her stock to a warehouse in Germany in order to keep exporting to the EU.
Ms Richards, who runs UK-based sustainable fashion firm Vildnis, told the BBC: ‘(The official from the Department of Trade) told me we’d be best off moving stock to a warehouse in Germany and get them to handle it.’
She says she has stopped exporting to the EU since Brexit.
It comes as it was revealed earlier this week UK Fashion & Textile Association chief Adam Mansell said retailers may now find it cheaper to simply dispose of the items at the EU warehouses rather than pay to have them shipped back to Britain.
He said: ‘It’s part of the ongoing small print of the deal. If you’re in Germany and buying goods from the UK, you as the German customer are the importer bringing goods into the EU.
‘You then have a courier company knocking on the door giving you a customs clearance invoice that you need to pay to receive your goods.’
Mr Mansell said further customs paperwork facing UK retailers when goods are returned includes an ‘export clearance charge, import charge arrival, import VAT charge and, depending on the goods, a rules of origin document as well. Lots of large businesses don’t have a handle on it, never mind smaller ones.’
Following Britain’s exit from the Customs Union and Single Market, EU consumers buying a coat, a pair of boots or any other product from a UK-based retailer now have to pay charges including import duties and courier or postal handling fees.
Some of the same costs and red tape also apply to British customers buying products that have been shipped from the EU – adding a third to the cost of online orders and slowing down deliveries due to extra checks at ports.
Customers in the EU are being asked to pay the extra costs by couriers when the goods reach their door, so many are rejecting them to avoid paying the bill. Figures from data firm Statista show that 30% of orders are now being returned.
UK Fashion & Textile Association chief Adam Mansell said it was often cheaper for British retailers to dump goods being returned from Europe rather than deal with them
Clothes shopper Louisa Walters, 52, was asked for £77.23 in tax, duties and charges after splashing out more than £240 on two items of clothing from Paris-based Sandro
How delays at the border are hitting food deliveries
There are more forms to fill in before lorries arrive at the Channel and other crossings following the UK’s exit from the Customs Union and Single Market.
And once they arrive at the ports, there are new checks by officials which also slow down the transport process.
For UK retailers, it means there is a slowdown in receiving stock from the EU. It takes longer for European hauliers to get here, and UK-based lorries are slowed down on the way out and then slowed down on the return trip as well.
This is leading to empty shelves and shortages of some goods for consumers.
The most immediate problems are with perishable goods – food and drink. Alcoholic drinks and staples including broccoli, tomatoes and cheese have been in short supply because they are imported from manufacturers in Europe.
The problems are similar for exporters, UK firms sending goods to be sold in Europe.
The import problem is most acute for perishable foods. Fish and shellfish that are sold to European markets are decomposing in the back of lorries because of the time taken to get across. And now the problem is affecting other, more robust foods, like meat and vegetables, which are rotting on the dockside.
Scottish seafood firms last week warned they are just ‘days from collapse’ unless emergency cash is paid out to compensate for the Brexit border chaos.
Hauliers have also faced difficulties transporting stock to Ulster under the Northern Ireland Protocol in the Brexit deal.
The protocol is designed to allow Northern Ireland to follow the EU’s customs rules to prevent the establishment of a hard border on the island of Ireland.
But this has caused delays at the ports on either side of the Irish Sea because of new declarations and checks.
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Four major UK High Street fashion retailers are have begun stockpiling returns at warehouses in Belgium, Ireland and Germany, reported the BBC. One brand will incur charges of almost £20,000 to get the returns back.
Apart from the charges, businesses need to also complete Customs declaration forms detailing the contents, their origin and value to get goods through ports.
British shoppers have already complained about being hit with punishing ‘Brexit fees’ on purchases from Europe, which could add more than third to the cost of a new outfit.
Londoner, Ellie Huddleston, aged 26, found the charges added up to £82 for a £200 coat and another £58 for a selection of blouses that had a list price of £180.
Lisa Walpole, from Norfolk, was told to pay £121 in relation to a £236 clothes order she made from the Norwegian website Onepiece.com, which specialises in premium jumpsuits.
And Helen Kara, from Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, was hit with a bill for £93 after purchasing £292 worth of bed linen from Urbanara.co.uk, which is based in Berlin.
Ms Huddleston said she was surprised by the fees, which were notified by the two international courier firms who were handling the shipments.
‘I didn’t even know when the parcels would be coming – so I sent both back without paying the extra fees and won’t be ordering anything from Europe again any time soon,’ she told the BBC.
One of the biggest problems is that people shopping with an EU-based store online find it difficult, if not impossible, to understand how much the extra charges will add up to.
A man who paid £300 to buy two pairs of suede winter boots from a German firm online was told by UPS that he would have to come up with another £147 before they would deliver.
The unnamed man told the BBC: ‘It was virtually impossible to find out what the charges would be beforehand, so I had to take a shot in the dark. I didn’t imagine that it would be half as much again.’
Under the new rules, anyone in the UK receiving a gift from the EU worth more than £39 may now face a bill for import VAT – with many items charged at 20per cent.
For goods costing more than £135, customs duties may also apply, which can range from 0-25per cent of the purchase price.
The extra charges are usually collected by the courier on behalf of the government, with customers asked to pay before they can pick up their package. Because of the new red tape and costs involved, most courier firms add a handling fee, so pushing up the bill even more.
The Brexit trade deal has seen many European customers rejecting goods imported from the UK after being presented with unexpected customs paperwork and charges when signing for them
The costs and complexity of the new regime means that some EU businesses have decided to suspend selling items to UK consumers.
Courier industry expert, David Jinks, the Head of Consumer Research at ParcelHero, said: ‘Now the UK has left the EU’s single market I’m afraid shoppers buying from EU stores should expect the unexpected.
‘Despite the fact Boris Johnson claimed he had secured a ‘cakeist’ free trade deal, meaning Britain can actually have its cake and eat it, there are, in fact, a bunch of new fees that may need to be paid on parcels arriving from the EU.
‘Some EU-based stores have stopped selling to the UK entirely because of the mess.’
The Government said: ‘We have encouraged companies new to dealing with customs declarations to appoint a specialist to deal with import and export declarations on their behalf – and we made more than £80m available to expand the capacity of the customs agents market.
‘The Government will continue to work closely with businesses to ensure they are able to trade effectively under the new rules.’
Meanwhile, on claims UK businesses were being told to create subsidaries in the EU, a Department for International Trade spokesperson said: ‘This is not government policy, the Cabinet Office have issued clear guidance, available at gov.uk/transition, and we encourage all businesses to follow that guidance.
‘We are ensuring all officials are properly conveying this information.’
British customers are also liable to be hit with further duties if the goods originated, even partially, outside the EU.
The delivery companies are then whacking their own additional charges on top – 2.5 per cent of the VAT charge in the case of DHL – to cover their administrative fees.
It is believed that the issues can be ironed out over the next few months as more EU retailers register with HMRC.
These are four examples of products ordered by UK customers from EU firms that have now gone up in price due to Brexit charges and red tape
Lisa Walpole, from Norfolk, was told to pay £121 in relation to a £236 clothes order she made from the Norwegian website Onepiece.com, which specialises in premium jumpsuits
And Helen Kara, from Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, was hit with a bill for £93 after purchasing £292 worth of bed linen from Urbanara.co.uk, which is based in Berlin (pictured is the firm’s website)
But some have pulled the plug on their UK operations altogether in the wake of Brexit.
Shoppers in the UK have reported shortages of some items in domestic supermarkets after Britain split from Brussels at the start of the year.
Items seemingly in short supply have included cauliflower packs, citrus fruit, courgettes, French wine and brie.
Meanwhile, M&S stores in France have faced supply issues and millions of pounds worth of meat exports from the UK have been left to rot in ports on the continent because of new border rules.
Northern Ireland has also experienced food shortages but ministers have previously been insistent problems were not Brexit-related.
Northern Ireland Minister Brandon Lewis said empty shelves had ‘nothing to do with leaving the EU’ as he blamed the coronavirus crisis.
But Ms Truss, the International Trade Secretary, has now said Brexit is partly to blame, putting her at odds with her Cabinet colleague.
She told ITV’s Peston programme: ‘Well, I think it is down to both of those issues. Of course we were always clear that we are leaving the single market, we are leaving the customs unions, there would be processes to be undertaken.
‘We are now seeing a more rapid flow of goods into Northern Ireland and those supermarket shelves are being stocked.
‘Of course there was always going to be a period of adjustment for businesses but at the same time the benefits of having the trade deal we now have with the EU is we are able to strike trade deals with the rest of the world.’
But while some sectors have shared their post-Brexit difficulties, others, such as the boss of car-making giant Nissan, says the UK’s new trade deal with the US gives the country a ‘competitive advantage’.
Ashwani Gupta, the carmaker’s chief operating officer, said he believed the last minute deal would ‘redefine’ the UK’s auto industry.
Ashwani Gupta (pictured), the carmaker’s chief operating officer, said he believed the last minute deal would ‘redefine’ the UK’s auto industry
The Brexit trade deal has given Nissan a competitive advantage, according to a senior official at the Japanese car giant. Pictured: The plant today
‘Brexit has brought the business continuity in the short-term, protects 75,000 jobs across Europe and most importantly – all of our models which we manufacture in Sunderland,’ he told a news briefing.
Speaking from Japan, he said Nissan would continue investing in the UK, stressing the company did not stop investing in the run-up to the UK leaving the EU.
The Brexit deal had secured the sustainability of Nissan and improved competitiveness of the giant Sunderland factory, he said.
‘Sunderland is one of the top three plants in the world for competitiveness for Nissan,’ he said. ‘Brexit gives us the competitive advantage in the UK and outside.’
Mr Gupta also said Nissan would move production of the batteries used in its Leaf electric cars to the UK to take advantage of trade rules guaranteeing zero tariffs on EU exports if at least 55 per cent of the car’s value is derived from the UK or the EU.
The batteries are currently imported from Japan, but Mr Gupta told the BBC: ‘We’ve decided to localise the manufacture of the 62KW battery in Sunderland so that all our products qualify (for tariff-free export to the EU).’
By the end of 2023 all Nissan cars sold in Europe will have an electrified version, he said, adding it would then be up to customers to decide how quickly they switch from petrol and diesel motors.
Mr Gupta added Nissan’s message had been ‘consistent’ over the past few years, while Brexit was causing so much uncertainty for business.
‘As long as the current business conditions are kept, we are sustainable, not only in Sunderland, but across Europe.’
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: ‘Nissan’s decision represents a genuine belief in Britain and a huge vote of confidence in our economy thanks to the vital certainty that our trade deal with the EU has given the auto sector.
‘For the dedicated and highly-skilled workforce in Sunderland, it means the city will be home to Nissan’s latest models for years to come and positions the company to capitalise on the wealth of benefits that will flow from electric vehicle production as part of our green industrial revolution.’
n’);document.write(‘n nn’);} ONE OF Europe’s most-wanted men has been arrested this week for the rape of an 84-year-old woman in 2009.
National Police Forces of Spain and France coordinated with ENFAST to track and detain the 48-year-old Frenchman near Barcelona.
FUGITIVE: Caught after four years on the run
Although he used a false Italian identity to try to hide in this country, he was located and arrested in the coastal town of Casteldefels, 16 miles south of Catalonia’s capital.
The man had an OEDE (European Arrest and Surrender Order) issued against him by European authorities.
RAPIST: Attacked an 84-year-old woman in his native France
The rape was carried out in 2009, but DNA didn’t link him to the crime until 2012.
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His trial in 2016 resulted in him being sentenced to 10 years in prison.
What is ENFAST?
ENFAST stands for European Network of Fugitive Active Search Teams.
The EU provides funding to bring together a core group of crime experts, sharing intelligence from the 27 (previously 28) EU Member States, Europol, Interpol and US Marshals.
Europol provides its Platform for Experts (EPE) to the national fugitive teams enabling the exchange of essential information.
They also publish the ‘Europe’s Most Wanted’ list on their website.
Training is provided to senior police officers on issues vital to the security of the European Union and its citizens.
(Left to right) Dr. Lorho S Pfoze and Shelmi Sankhil at the release of a book on January 23.
Dimapur, Jan. 24 (EMN): Naga Scholars’ Association (NSA), in collaboration with Bibliophile South Asia, organised a programme for release of a book titled ‘Flame on a hill: A collection of stories’ authored by Shelmi Sankhil on January 23. The book was released by Dr. Lorho S Pfoze, sitting Lok Sabha MP from Outer Constituency, Manipur.
Speaking at the programme, the author stated that the book is a collection of stories clubbed into three categories basing on specific moments in the history of the Lamkang people. Starting with the historical event of the third century common era, when a Lamkang village was razed to the ground by Leiya Punsiba, the then king of the Moirang kingdom, the historical arc of the stories in this category included later encounters with the unified kingdom of Manipur (1570 CE), the British in the early nineteenth century, and the Japanese during World War 2, an update from NSA stated.
The author also stated that “These stories, written in the mould of historical fiction, should not be read as ‘pure’ history, for they are imaginative reconstructions of actual events. Nevertheless, their historical relevance should not be dismissed as ‘fiction’ either.”
The second category, according to the author, consisted of set of stories that is categorised as memoir as some of them recounted his encounters with military excesses in Manipur at a given time, while the others recounted notable experiences of select individuals that were narrated to a living audience.
The third category consisted of short stories which are entirely fictional in both their conception and treatment. They are topical and intended to generate healthy dialogue on some aspects of culture and tradition, the statement read adding the story form provides opportunity for an ‘objective’ and harmless evaluation of certain issues that afflict contemporary Lamkang culture.
The event was moderated by Senganglu Thaimei, assistant professor of English, Miranda House, while speeches were also delivered by Dr. Pfoze and Ashok Butani, the publisher.
It stated that NSA president Dr. Zuchamo Yanthan, in his welcome note, emphasised the importance of the book for understanding one of the least understood Naga communities in Manipur. He also congratulated the author for writing a book that would not only introduce the historical experiences of the Lamkang people, but also of the Chandel Naga tribes as a whole.
The event concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Dr. KK Loung Nathan.
