As easy as it is to hide behind the brand Tasty Pasty, Dan wants to be more open with you to put you in the picture about what’s happening in the world of Tasty Pasty.
Dear cherished Tasty Pasty customers,
Whether you think Brexit is a good or bad thing (that’ll depend on your perspective!), our small business is currently being affected by the new rules and regulations in place importing into the EU.
In the past, we would work with our bakery to decide which varieties to make for you and would subsequently order these. A week or so later, the pasties would arrive and the pasty joy could begin!
New rules and regulations, new headaches.
Now, before the pasties can even leave the bakery, we have to arrange for vets to visit the bakery and fill out lots of forms for each variety of pasty we would like to bring you. There are naturally more costs involved - and these are per variety, not per shipment (unfortunately). This has to be carried out the day before the shipment leaves. And that leads us to logistics.
The logistics company now needs to ensure that everything that should be on the pallet, is on the pallet. If any of the paperwork is incomplete, the pasties will be sent back to Cornwall. All the information needs to be inputted into a variety of systems and need to be in line with the requirements of the German Zoll. And there’s our next hurdle.
Before we can even consider importing anything to Germany, the Zoll needs to provide us with our own EORI number. We are now finally in the process of receiving this but that’s not the end of the story. We now are waiting for confirmation from the Zoll which Customs Tariff will be levied on the pasties. We hope to hear next week about this.) We might be lucky and there won’t be one, but it is likely to be anything around 10% on the cost of the pallet. This leads us to costs.
Costs, costs, costs.
The additional costs (vets certificates, logistics and paperwork, Zoll) is likely to add 2,000 Euros to the cost of a pallet of pasties. That’s right, 2,000 Euros. The only way to make this at all viable at this stage based on the information we have, is to order A LOT in one go. Remember, the vets and logistics costs are a one off and can be spread across pallets. Of course, we don’t have those funds at the moment.
We’re waiting to hear back from the Zoll this coming week and then hopefully we’ll know how realistic it’ll be to order some more pasties anytime soon.
What about making them here you ask?
We’ve had numerous conversations regarding this and are definitely open to more of the same. So far, we are however yet to be convinced that we could deliver the Cornish pasties WE want you to be enjoying and at a price that doesn’t leave a bitter aftertaste for anyone. It all has to add up somehow.
We’re open to ideas, and if there is anyone out there with an idea, a kitchen, a history of professional Cornish Pasty making :) or similar, we would love to hear from you.
Where next…
Since opening the Tasty Pasty Company in 2014, we’ve learnt a lot! (I know I have!). As some of you know, Tasty Pasty is a project driven by my passion for British food and drink, British culture, the breaking down of stereotypes and the creation of a little piece of ‘home’ for anyone who misses the UK. This is still a learning game and we’re determined to find a way to move beyond the current difficulties. In the meantime, you might find different things on offer but trust in one thing: we won’t give up without a fight!
I hope you enjoyed this first blog post. Watch this space for more to come. And feel free to leave your comments!
Cheers, Dan
1 comment
Hi Dan, just saw this, so perhaps it’s now resolved…
and I have no idea whether this would work… but my hairdresser in Germany offered a 10% discount during shutdown last year to anyone who bought a “Gutschein” …
so perhaps you could fund some extra pasties on the pallet by offering a 10% discount for anyone buying a “Gutschein” for say ten pasties (Get 10 pay for 9)
- sorry I’m just doing some brainstorming here ;-)
and perhaps a system with a card with 10 squares and a square is stamped for every pasty collected and make it valid for say 6 or 12 months…
Best Wishes
Lynda
Lynda@gmx.net