A JERSEY-BACKED application to open a border inspection post in Granville – which would make it far easier for locally farmed oysters and mussels to be imported into the EU – has made it to Brussels, the furthest the plan has reached since Brexit.
However, recent events may have overtaken efforts to open the post – which is designed to ensure that live animals, plants and animal-based products are disease and pest free, and meet safety and welfare standards – with the UK and EU currently seeking to ‘reset’ their relationship.
This could lead to the closure or significant downsizing of several border posts.
Before the UK left the EU in 2020, when Jersey was treated as a member for goods, it was straightforward for shellfish to be exported to the French port, about 40 miles to the southeast.
However, since then, the nearest official ‘Veterinary and Phytosanitary Border Inspection Office’, or ‘SIVEP’ for short, has been in St Malo, which is further away and is more challenging to reach due to the limitations of ferry services, lock opening times and tides.
This has added significant cost for the main exporter, Jersey Oyster, and its associated shipping line Normandy Trader, which now operates a triangular service between the Island and the two French ports.
Explaining the request to open a SIVEP in Granville, which is backed by the Norman port, External Relations Minister Ian Gorst said: “We have been pushing to open one in Granville and there is some progress being made there.
“It is not only supported by Jersey, but by regional French officials. It has to go through this convoluted process: up to Paris and then to Brussels and back, and that application is currently with Brussels, which is the nearest we have ever been to it being endorsed.
“It will still take time and, even if it happens, it will not be the golden bullet, because there will still be a process, and sometimes individuals on the ground can make those processes difficult. But if we can get it open, that will be a real improvement.”
Environment Minister Steve Luce added: “There was a new environment minister in Paris whom we have corresponded with, and we have tried really hard to get off on the right foot. We have made some really good progress.
We do need Granville because this work may take a year up to two years, which could be the difference between our our fishery industry staying with us or not.”
Environment minister steve luce
“The application is now in Brussels, where there are some t’s to cross and i’s to dot, but want to make sure that we see action and not just words. We will continue to work on it in the hope that the French government will find a way to deliver the SIVEP.”
He continued: “There is a train of thought in France and Europe generally that says: ‘We are about to start this EU-UK rest negotiations and we will not need SIVEPs as all the borders will be open, so there is not need for the Granville post’.
“But I say: ‘Yes, we do need Granville because this work may take a year up to two years, which could be the difference between our our fishery industry staying with us or not’.”
Reacting to the latest developments with the Granville inspection post, Jersey Oyster’s Chris Le Masurier said: “A post in Granville would be welcomed, as it would have been over the six years it has been promised.
“It has always been called for by both Granville and Jersey fishermen at our level, but it was stopped politically in France.
“To me, it is a joke that there was an announcement about the Brexit reset and the fact that the border posts are going to be done away and a couple of months later, Granville wakes up and applies to set up a SIVEP.
“That was six months ago and in the meantime, we have missed the Christmas sales and French boats continue to fish in our waters. So, at the same time that there are talks about SIVEPs being closed, Granville is thinking of opening one.
“It is all too little, too late. Jersey has given, given and given but received very little in return. If the Island implemented the same border controls for food, there would not be any French products on the shelves.”
