Vets warn delay to post-Brexit checks will ‘open door to African Swine Fever’ and other diseases
30/03/2022
‘Deeply misguided’ to ‘weaken this layer of protection for both animal and public health’, government told.
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.
Labour shortages caused by Brexit and accentuated by the COVID pandemic have badly affected businesses across the food and farming sector and could cause ‘permanent’ damage, UK lawmakers stated in a report published on Wednesday (6 April).
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.
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.
Leading figures in the livestock industry say that the animals face being killed and burned because Priti Patel has failed to include the butchers on a list of shortage occupations.
'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.
The UK faces shortages of British-produced meat as problems with recruitment continue, the industry has warned.
The ongoing economic shocks from COVID-19, the sector-specific worries of African swine fever and the logistical upheaval from Brexit have left the UK’s pig industry in peril.
UK meat exporters have warned the government that post-Brexit changes at the border have caused disruption to meat shipments crossing the channel.
BREXIT has caused a headache for a a supermarket sausage supplier based near Swindon.
The UK food industry said the main impact of such a departure from the bloc will be on fresh produce, such as fruit and vegetables, which cannot be stockpiled by retailers or consumers and are largely imported from the EU during the winter months.
With a lack of foreign labour in Britain’s fields, crops are rotting and thousands of healthy pigs are being culled unnecessarily.
Trade deal would open door to meat containing banned growth promoters, from pigs kept in conditions banned in UK, industry leaders warn.
Taxes cut on birds’ eggs, raw hides, fur skins and ultra-strong spirits – but UK does not export them anyway.
Post-Brexit Red Tape Is Set To Cost The Meat Industry £120m A Year and Reduce Some Exports By Half
24/03/2021
New barriers to the UK's trade with the European Union are set to cost British meat businesses an extra £120m a year and result in some traders losing 50% of their exports to the continent, a leading industry body has warned.
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.
‘Like a ghost town’: Food boss laments collapse in trade at fish market as exports to EU face barriers.
Businesses tell a different story, one of bureaucracy and delays that add up to higher costs. Elsewhere, hidden under the impact of virus lockdowns, Brexit seeped into all parts of the economy...
The Government’s Fantasy Food Strategy
07/08/2022
The government’s food strategy lacks detail or any plans for implementation, and it is contradicted by its other policies.
With Britain out of the European Union, companies that trade with the continent are contending with expensive disruptions to their businesses and a plunge in exports.
Fears of illness over nitrites used in US but currently banned in Britain and EU.
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.
Soil Association raises concerns over chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef.
MPs have stirred a debate after voting on 'New Clause 17' - an amendment giving 'cast-iron' protection to the NHS in a trade deal. Tory MPs did not support it - but a handful did rebel over the issue more widely