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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.
Retailers and farmers explain what shoppers should expect as Brexit and supply chain problems bite.
Farmers have held a protest outside government offices in York over claims the pig industry is at risk of collapse.
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%.
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.
The British meat industry is warning that hundreds of thousands of pigs may have to be culled within weeks unless the government issues more visas to allow slaughterers into the country.
Pig farmers in Northumberland will be among those forced to “slaughter their own animals” to dispose of them if the situation facing the industry does not change, the chairman of the National Pig Association has warned.
‘Desperate’ farmers face mass destruction of animals, industry body warns.
The National Pig Association is calling for urgent action ahead of an emergency summit with the Government.
Government ‘are standing by and watching this happen’, a leading supplier said.
Great Britain’s beef producers export to Ireland before reimporting, while pork processors consider the Netherlands.
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.
Thousands of healthy pigs may be culled if the government does not step in and tackle labour shortages at Britain’s slaughterhouses and processing plants, meat producers have warned. / It could result in perfectly good meat going to waste, says National Pig Association.
Increased costs and administrative hurdles are stifling the movement of horses and livestock in what were once thriving industries.
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.
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.
Pig farmers are facing a "human disaster" due to a shortage of abattoir workers, the National Farmer's Union has said.
A "potentially disastrous" backlog of thousands of pigs is building up on East Anglian farms due to labour shortages at meat processing factories, said industry leaders.
The British economy is beginning to understand what it is to be tipped over the cliff edge. Cries of alarm and distress flares are going up across the length and breadth of the country, and from industries as diverse as fishing and finance and from pigs to paint.
The National Pig Association has said that healthy animals are being destroyed following the exodus of EU workers as there are not enough people employed in slaughterhouses.
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 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.