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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.
'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 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.
The BMPA claims the UK Government has made it “doubly difficult” to recruit new butchers as a result of Brexit and a lack of funding for education courses.
Brexit and pandemic could ‘permanently damage’ British food and farming industry [4 mins]
06/04/2022
Labour shortages and price rises triggered by Brexit and the pandemic could leave the British food and farming industry permanently damaged, MPs have warned.
The former prime minister’s hollow catchphrase captured a fundamental truth—just not the one she thought it did.
Many Brits will be forced to go without a Christmas turkey this year because of Brexit labour shortages, MPs were told this afternoon.
Government ‘are standing by and watching this happen’, a leading supplier said.
Crops left unharvested, healthy pigs culled and increased costs which will ultimately have to be swallowed by the consumer. Not going well, is it?
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.
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.
Farmers sound alarm as more than 40,000 pigs are culled and meat thrown away due to Brexit and pandemic
22/02/2022
An estimated 200,000 pigs are backed up on farms because of a lack of skilled butchers to process them, while 40,000 animals have already been culled and their meat thrown away, farmers said this morning.
Butchers, bricklayers and welders are in such short supply that UK employers should be able to recruit them from abroad when EU freedom of movement rules end, government advisers say.
A SCOTTISH firm has revealed how it was forced to abandon all trade with Europe after Brexit hammered the “nail into the coffin” of its export business.
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.
Great Britain’s beef producers export to Ireland before reimporting, while pork processors consider the Netherlands.
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.
Could take ‘decades’ to shift away from reliance on overseas staff, say food sector leaders attending Downing Street summit.
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.
A pig farmer who has been losing around £5,000 a week since Christmas has called for more government support for the industry.
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.
Abattoirs, butchers and meat processors are set to employ prisoners and ex-inmates to help plug labour shortages.
Sausage maker Cranswick hails Philippine butcher hires as key in revenue growth as Brexit hits labour supply
23/05/2023
"Historically we’ve relied on the availability of skilled migrant workers from the EU," he said. "That has been extremely difficult. But we’ve filled that labour gap from the Philippines."
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%.