Pig farmers are in a “desperate” position – with culls of thousands of healthy animals and producers quitting the industry, they warned as a summit was held on the crisis.
The National Pig Association is calling for urgent action ahead of an emergency summit with the Government.
Farmers have held a protest outside government offices in York over claims the pig industry is at risk of collapse.
The Yorkshire farmers who say they face a 'living hell' with Covid and Brexit perfect storm
09/01/2022
Thousands of pig farmers say they are in ‘a living hell’ as a perfect storm of supply chain delays caused by COVID and a shortage of butchers has pushing their industry to the edge.
Senior Tory MP warns Brexit ‘destroying’ British agriculture and condemns government failure to act
15/12/2021
A furious Neil Parish laid into Kevin Foster, the immigration minister, for ignoring a recommendation to make it easier to bring in EU butchers and other workers – leading to a huge shortage.
Senior Tory MP warns Brexit ‘destroying’ British agriculture and condemns government failure to act
14/12/2021
Minister under fire for rejecting moves to bring in EU farm workers – as vegetable planting plunges 25%.
How Brexit and the food supply chain crisis might take a bite out of your Christmas dinner
08/12/2021
With the pandemic worsening supply chain problems and UK worker shortages caused by Brexit, there’s a chance we may need to adapt our Christmas dinners this year.
Every farmers' worst nightmare is coming to pass; the mass culling of healthy animals because there simply aren't enough butchers to process them and get them off farms... So how did we get here?
Thousands of pigs have been ‘unnecessarily culled’ because exporting to the EU has become too expensive and difficult since the end of the Brexit transition period, industry leaders have warned.
British cattle farmers are sending supplies to Ireland to be carved into cuts, according to the chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), before being brought back to the UK for consumption.
Great Britain’s beef producers export to Ireland before reimporting, while pork processors consider the Netherlands.
Brexit has made supply chain "bottlenecks" worse in the UK, according to the independent financial watchdog that provides the government with data.
Britain's turkey farmers will do their best to ensure Christmas "is as normal as it can be" but shortages are likely, an industry representative has warned.
Many Brits will be forced to go without a Christmas turkey this year because of Brexit labour shortages, MPs were told this afternoon.
“Yes, I did vote for Brexit, but I can assure everybody that is listening that I did not vote for this. I voted for people to be more patriotic," the upset farmer has said.
In the latest reversal of post-Brexit immigration policy, the UK government is to offer 800 temporary visas to foreign butchers in a bid to counter a spiralling crisis on pig farms.
Pig farmers are facing a "human disaster" due to a shortage of abattoir workers, the National Farmer's Union has said.
Vets working to tackle pigs’ overcrowding in farms have said Prime Minister Boris Johnson is not taking the abattoir labour shortage seriously, and soon ‘mass culling’ would be the only option left to farmers.
'Grown men in tears': Hundreds of pigs culled with farms overcrowded amid butcher shortage
05/10/2021
"These are animals that they have reared, fed, looked after, cared for. To actually then kill something that's perfectly healthy to then go in the bin - it's just criminal," the head of the National Pig Association told Sky News.
Farming groups have been left 'shocked and dismayed' after Boris Johnson played down the prospect of a mass cull of pigs due to a shortage of plant staff.
Government ‘are standing by and watching this happen’, a leading supplier said.
A pig farmer from Suffolk is set to quit his profession after more than two decades, saying that the shortage of butchers which may lead to a mass cull of pigs is the final straw.
Farmers begin culling pigs as Britain’s labour shortage, exacerbated by Brexit, hits food processing plants
04/10/2021
First it was a lack of truck drivers that crippled gas stations. Now Britain is facing a shortage of food processing workers that’s become so severe farmers have started culling 120,000 pigs.
‘Don’t let Brexit obliterate us’: Pig farmers protest at Tory conference amid cull warning
04/10/2021
Farmers dressed in pig costumes have protested outside the Conservative Party conference amid warnings that more than 100,000 pigs could be culled.