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French customs reject beef going to Portugal
Page 7
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by Lee Kimber
• A British haulier en route for Portugal has been turned back by French customs because his cargo of Marks & Spencer textiles contained beef products. French officials at Ashford rejected CL Hayes' load after they found papers for six cases of beef pate and three of beef curry powder in documents relating to its mainly textile load.
Owner Caroline Hayes is faced with 24 hours' of lost earnings, wages and diesel bills after the truck was forced to return to a HOC Distribution warehouse in Hemel Hempstead, where it had originally been loaded, and the nine pallets were removed.
"It's absolutely ridiculous in my mind," says Hayes transport manager Karl Hayes. "What's annoying is that it was French customs on sovereign soil." But British customs and the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Fisheries say the French were within their rights. A spokeswoman says that if the beef was British it should not have been shipped, while if it was foreign beef documentation should have identified it as such. "The poor driver clearly wasn't given the correct paperwork," she added.
Graham Houghton, RHA controller for food, confirms that the French were merely forcing an Ell-ban that affects goods bound for Portu al as much as France: "Realistically, nothing that contains beef should be allowed in a load," he says. M&S says the beef was loaded by mistake; it is investigating how it happened.
HOC says: "We were well aware of the embargo on the export of beef products to Europe and there is no question of our having attempted to break it."
Now Hayes fears the puhlftity over the incident could cost him the contract, which employs two of the company's three tucks.