Icon: enlarge
Tesco supermarket in Belfast: Less and less on the shelves
Photo: Charles McQuillan / Getty Images
Brexit can be unsavory.
These days people will have to open the doors of a truck full of pigs' heads that has been stuck in the port of Rotterdam for more than two weeks.
And then pull out the decaying remains - to destroy them.
The pig's head drama begins on day one after the completion of Brexit.
On January 1st, the truck of the London meat trader DH Foods arrives by ship in the port of Rotterdam.
A few hours earlier, the driver could have stepped on the gas immediately, when Great Britain was still in the EU internal market and customs union.
But now the Dutch inspectors are demanding health certificates.
And when they discover that the pig's heads have not been checked for trichinae - this is not a must in England in certain cases - they refuse the truck to continue driving.
From then on, the car stands still while the load rots inside.
Icon: enlarge
Checkpoints in the port of Calais: the post-Brexit bureaucracy makes life difficult for freight forwarders
Photo: Michel Spingler / AP
It is not an isolated incident.
More than 120 trucks with British meat products and lard have been stopped in Rotterdam alone since the beginning of the year because they could not produce the necessary papers.
Many of them are still on the port site, complains David Lindars, Technical Director of the British Meat Processors Association, in an interview with SPIEGEL: “We fear that the goods will spoil.
It's bizarre. "
Read more with Spiegel Plus
More perspectives, more understanding.
Your advantages with SPIEGEL +
Icon: Check
SPIEGEL as a magazine
as an app, e-paper and on the e-reader
Icon: Check
All articles on SPIEGEL.de
Exclusive texts for SPIEGEL + readers
Icon: Check
Try one month for free
Cancel anytime online
A price
only € 19.99 per month
One month for € 0.00
Try now for 0.00 € Buy nowArrow to the right
Already have a digital subscription? Register here
Restore iTunes subscription
SPIEGEL + is processed via your iTunes account and paid for with a purchase confirmation.
24 hours before it expires, the subscription is automatically renewed by one month at the current price of € 19.99.
You can cancel the subscription at any time in the settings of your iTunes account.
In order to use SPIEGEL + outside of this app, you must link the subscription to a SPIEGEL ID account immediately after purchase.
With the purchase you accept our general terms and conditions and privacy policy.