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.
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.
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?
Farmers have held a protest outside government offices in York over claims the pig industry is at risk of collapse.
Mass culling of 35,000 pigs and tonnes of crops being left to rot 'caused by Brexit', committee finds
06/04/2022
A lack of food and farm workers “caused by Brexit and accentuated by the pandemic” meant at least 35,000 pigs were culled and tonnes of crops left to rot in the fields last year, a damning report has revealed.
NFU president tells conference ministers have no understanding of how food production works. / Food producers have said the challenges they face are “the toughest in a generation” as members of the National Farmers’ Union met for their annual conference after the first full year of Brexit.
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%.
Skills shortages and rising costs leave pig industry facing 'worst crisis in decades' [5 mins]
26/04/2022
Pig farmers are warning of a crisis that threatens a mass exodus from an industry facing a skills shortage as well as huge increases in costs of feed and energy.
‘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.
Many Brits will be forced to go without a Christmas turkey this year because of Brexit labour shortages, MPs were told this afternoon.
Firms across four different sectors share their stories of rising costs, extra paperwork and packages that never arrive.
Farming: Tories showed ‘total lack of understanding’ post-Brexit as 40,000 pigs killed & thrown away
22/02/2022
This “disaster should have and could have been avoided”, and that the situation pig farmers find themselves in “truly is an utter disgrace”.
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.
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.
Post-Brexit pressure could see farmers destroy 100,000 pigs due to a shortage of staff in slaughterhouses.
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.
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.
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.
Sales to Germany, Spain and Italy all dropped by more than a third in the past year.
‘Desperate’ farmers face mass destruction of animals, industry body warns.
Talk at this week’s NFU conference will be alive with financial, labour and competition concerns.
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 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.
Producers in Great Britain could once sell meat to EU customers as easily as they could at home. Since Brexit, exporters face a process of up to 26 steps, with every shipment logged in multiple databases and certified by reams of red tape. Here are all the hoops exporters must jump through