Nurseryman John Middleton recommends ban on imports to combat longhorn beetle threat

He said: "With the longhorn beetle and the euro, people might be getting the message. We don't want Government help, but we don't want its hindrance either. The Government has neglected to acknowledge that imported hardy nursery stock is the greatest threat to the environment in this country with the importation of pests and diseases.

"Food is consumed and flowers have a short lifespan but hardy nursery stock exists in the ground for years. If we were in the same situation we were in before the EU we would have the power to block imports to protect our ecology and environment. This has consequences for our food production as well as the environment and ecology.

"As long as hardy nursery stock continues to be done in this country, we should look for greater self-sufficiency and import less."

Kernock Park Plants managing director Bruce Harnett said longhorn beetle attacks in Boskoop, Holland, meant "there are a lot of buyers in the UK concerned about whether they are going to get their plants".

The Dutch say the problems have come in from China and Harnett added that: "China is a different game when it comes to importing plants rather than products — you have to be careful."

Speaking on the Horticultural Development Company stand, HomeGrown campaign founder Bill Godfrey said British nurseries need to "hold their hands up and say they are producing top-quality products at competitive prices and to tell their customers that there are British-grown plants available".

He called for product differentiation at point of sale for better "interfacing with customers" and said British growers should not be concerned about the strong euro or longhorn beetle problems in Holland and should "do the job you have to do yourself".

GAN operations director Simon Edwards said: "British-grown must have an impact. Customers in garden centres do have an interest, given their demographics."

He added: "We at GAN don't buy anything like as much from Holland as we used to — we used to go over a couple of times a year and buy 100 trolleys. Anything that makes it easier to buy in this country has to be good."