But Farrand added the Guild is granted a special licence each year to import cheeses, and British cheesemakers complied with all the conditions.

On Friday morning, however, it became apparent that the cheeses hadn’t been cleared. “The reasons are unclear to me, even on Friday we were still fighting to get some clarity and clear instruction on what wasn’t right, but we had no success,” Farrand told the Observer yesterday.

The competition granted the correct paperwork, the British cheese makers complied with the paperwork, but the EU customs officials didn’t do their job properly? That’s basically what this quote implies.