Scotland’s fishing industry faces a damaging and permanent loss of overseas customers within days because of post-Brexit paperwork chaos.
Many seafood exporters fear they will collapse as a result of the delays. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh seafood sales to the EU were cancelled last week after bureaucracy added days to delivery times. The introduction of health certificates, customs declarations and other paperwork led to bottlenecks on both sides of the Channel.
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, warned businesses on Friday to brace for disruption as France told its ports to crack down on lorries from Britain with incorrect paperwork.
Fishermen’s leaders and wholesalers warn that EU customers will take their business, worth more than £1 billion a year to Scottish firms,
