The Old Dairy Brewery in Kent – a Department for International Trade export champion for the south east – featured in a government video last year promoting the potential for a Brexit boost to export sales. However, exports of bottled and cask Kent ale to countries such as Italy, Germany and Sweden have fallen since the UK left the EU due to onerous red tape. The brewery now has a European customer, a Berlin pub manager who travels to England in a van to pick up the beer. The value of the Kent brewery’s annual beer exports fell from £600,000 to £2,000. Virginia Hodge, export manager at the Tenterden-based brewery, said: “Some shipping companies won’t take alcohol now because of all the shipping documents you need. I used to be able to make a case of beer and send it by courier [to Europe] and now I have to send it through the full customs declaration. Our customers in Europe say they want to get British beer, but it’s just not cost-effective. They have to do a lot more paperwork.” He said the brewer’s one remaining European customer had faced multiple challenges. He said: “The first time he came we were up all night trying to get him through customs at Dover and out of the country. “He was stuck because of the bureaucracy. He was only coming for one night, but now it takes four days because of all the problems.” Hodge said small businesses have not received enough support. He said: “There is no one to ask and there is no system.” He said advisers on government helplines referred questions about export problems to the government website. UK exports of goods to the EU reached £16.9bn in May, the highest level since figures began in 1997. However, it is smaller traders who are particularly struggling with the extra paperwork required to export after Brexit. Deadlock at the port of Dover caused by extra red tape at the border with France. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Old Dairy Brewery is now hoping to boost its EU business once again by consolidating orders with other small breweries. He is now overseeing an export collective which he hopes will help boost the British beer trade. Hodge said: “We hope that the collective nature of exports will make us more attractive to overseas importers. We’re trying to get some beer right now for a trade show in Munich, but the paperwork is huge.” He added that it was “ironic” that the brewery had been chosen to promote potential post-Brexit opportunities, but said he hoped the collective would help overcome the bureaucratic challenges now involved in selling to European customers. Andrew Griffith, the Export Secretary, said: “We know that businesses have had to deal with the new rules after Brexit. We’re helping more businesses take advantage of new opportunities and our export strategy gives them the tools they need.”
