‘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.
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.
Staff shortages see carcasses exported for processing and then reimported.
The National Pig Association is calling for urgent action ahead of an emergency summit with the Government.
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.
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?
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.
Critical industry leaders have accused Home Secretary Suella Braverman of being disconnected from the realities facing short staffed sectors after she claimed that there is "no good reason" why more British people can't be trained to take up jobs as butchers and fruit pickers.
Recruitment gap hitting hotels and restaurants as well as transport, CBI says.
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.
Skill and labour shortages in food and drink
17/04/2023
Corrine Bentham, Senior Associate at Eversheds Sutherland, comments on labour and recruitment data obtained by the law firm through and freedom of information request.
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%.
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."
Abattoirs, butchers and meat processors are set to employ prisoners and ex-inmates to help plug labour shortages.
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.
A pig farmer who has been losing around £5,000 a week since Christmas has called for more government support for the industry.
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.
Could take ‘decades’ to shift away from reliance on overseas staff, say food sector leaders attending Downing Street summit.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.