A hill of beans

"It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of one little airport don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." - Humphrey Bogart misquoted.

Manston was to be barred from importing beans unless it was properly registered. Manston applied for registration and was refused. A few days later, it was accepted. What happened in those few days? Nobody wants to say.

Last year, Thanet was shocked to the core to learn that Manston might not be allowed to continue importing Kenyan beans at any hour of the day or night it damn well pleases. Nothing to do with limitations on their disgustingly anti-social night flights, of course - this was all due to the mighty European Commission trying to protect us from revolting poisons in our greens.

If you believed half the self-important hype that Manston spouts about its commercial significance, you might have expected the economy of east Kent to have completely collapsed by now. It hasn't. It may be a bit wobbly, but that's not down to ​beans - it's broader than that. ​No, the major effect of this ban would have been that Manston would have lost some, or even all, of its business with its largest remaining customer, Cargolux.

Understandably keen to beat the 1st January 2013 deadline, Manston applied to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to be registered as a Designated Port of Entry (DPE), the status that would allow it to continue importing the mission-critical beans. On 20th December, the FSA refused their application, as Manston failed to meet the standards laid down in Article 4 of the regulations, which relates to the "Minimum requirements for designated points of entry".

And then the odd stuff starts.

All the necessary bean-balancing and toxin-testing that is required by the FSA isn't done by FSA people, or even Manston staff, but by Council employees - probably Environmental Health Officers (EHOs).

You'll remember that Christmas fell rather awkwardly (or rather well, perhaps) last year, resulting in an unusually large amount of limbo time. Nonetheless, between 20th December and the end of the year, TDC managed to sprinkle enough fairy dust over this problem to make it go away.

Somehow, TDC managed to rearrange the workload for its already over-stretched EHOs, AND cut through swathes of Government and FSA red tape, and PHEW!​ ​ at the eleventh hour saved Manston's bacon. And beans.

​You would have thought that this level and quality of support for local business is something that TDC would be shouting about - ideally, they would be offering the same shoulder-to-shoulder commitment to more local businesses.

But they seem to be surprisingly modest about how much time and effort it took to solve the problem of Manston being unfit to import beans. Or what the ongoing costs might be. Or what the impact on the other services provided by the EHOs might be. Or whether Thanet's EHOs will in future be on 24 hour standy (and rates?) in readiness for a "delayed arrival" which, as we know, can arrive at any time day or night.​

Bean Ban Bombshell

New EU rules will outlaw flying Kenyan veg into Manston, meaning fewer cargo night flights in 2013.

Thanks to the automated cleverness of the web, I get a steady stream of more or less interesting stuff from every corner of the globe. This little snippet is courtesy of the European Commission, and I think I’ve managed to get the right end of this new bit of red tape.

Since 2009, the European legislators have been heroically protecting us from iffy food. The sort of things they look out for should never form part of a balanced diet - Aflatoxins, Salmonella, Norovirus, Hepatitis A, Pesticide residues, Aluminium and suchlike.

Anything that they’ve spotted as being a potential problem - specific foods from specific countries - goes on a watch list. The watch list is periodically reviewed, with items being added and removed, or having the testing frequency adjusted.

Two of the latest additions to this watch list are peas and beans (in the pod) from Kenya, the cause of concern being pesticide residues  (in particular residues of: Dimethoate (Sum), Chlorpyriphos, Acephate, Methamidophos, Methomyl, Diafenthiuron, Indoxacarb). It doesn’t appear to be a screaming dib-dabs panic, as they only plan to test 10% of imports - the lowest level of inspection. These additions to the watch list were published on 12th Dec 2012 and come into effect on 1st Jan 2013.

So what? Well, I’ve heard many descriptions of the freight flown into Manston - cut flowers, fruit salads - but a recurring feature has always been Kenyan green beans. This is what Cargolux and others are flying in when they arrive in the small hours, in yet another unexpected late arrival.

Watch list items can only be imported through Designated Entry Points - DEPs are the ports and airports that have the Food Standard Agency (FSA) approved facilities for randomly testing the agreed percentage of imports.

Manston is not a Designated Entry Point.

These are the UK’s current DEPs: Belfast port, Felixstowe port, Gatwick airport, Grimsby and Immingham port, Harwich port, Heathrow airport, Hull and Goole port, Liverpool port, London Thamesport, London Tilbury port, Manchester airport, Port of Bristol, Port of Tyne, Portsmouth port, Sheerness port, Southampton port, Stansted airport, Teesport.

This seems to mean that as of 1st January next year, Kenyan peas and beans (in the pod) can’t be flown into Manston - unless/until the airport is FSA approved. The FSA website site has a handy application form, if Infratil are thinking of taking that route.

Of course, all of this is exactly the sort of thing that most modern businesses prepare for through contingency planning, risk registers, SWOT analysis, and so on. Manston’s business plan should be able to deal with one income stream drying up.

With a bit of luck though, we’ll be getting fewer night flights while Charles Buchanan manages this unexpected opportunity.

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