Post-Brexit jobs crisis leads to thrown away food and fears over Christmas

The fresh vegetable, poultry and pig sectors - all key parts of our region's agricultural economy - are grappling with the impact of a lack of vital processing and haulage staff.

They are attributing this mainly to the post-Brexit changes to immigration rules which have ended free movement across borders and forced many Eastern European workers to seek employment in other countries - exacerbated by absences related to the Covid pandemic.

And they have called for urgent government action to re-open doors for migrant workers to avoid "disaster" for food producers, and a shortfall of British produce which could make the nation more reliant on imported foods.

One poultry producer is particularly worried about how he will recruit up to 300 seasonal staff for the busy Christmas turkey season, as his workforce is already 10pc down on its ideal size.

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Mark Gorton, a founding director of Traditional Norfolk Poultry, based in Shropham near Attleborough, is also a member of the National Poultry Board.

He said: "This is a disaster and it is 100pc to do with Brexit, because the people we need to employ have gone home. They feel they are not wanted any more, and they know they can go and work in France or Germany or Spain.

"I would say probably half of them have left and we have managed to replace them, but that replacement pool of people is now gone and we are sat here scratching our heads about what we are going to do. We are looking at Christmas and none of the labour agencies we use have said 'yes, we can find you your staff'.

"It is a massive, massive problem. We are OK at the moment - I could probably use 10pc more people than I have got to keep everything running smoothly, but at Christmas we need to double our workforce from 300 to 600 people. If I cannot find those 20 or 30 people now, how am I going to find 300 in November?"

"They [the government] have got to let immigrant labour back in. The UK economy is based on immigrant labour an at some point somebody is going to have to wake up and realise our labour has got to come from somewhere, because the native population is not going to do these jobs."

Simon Pearce is a director of vegetable producer Alfred G Pearce near King's Lynn (Image: © ARCHANT NORFOLK 2015)

Meanwhile, vegetable producers at Alfred G Pearce, based near King's Lynn, are throwing away thousands of tonnes of food every week due to a shortage of delivery drivers - as the haulage industry also employs many Eastern Europeans.

It has meant many consignments of perishable ingredients like carrots, parsnips and onions for soups and ready meals had not reached the customer on time, so they were returned to be dumped, costing "several thousands of pounds" per week.

Director Simon Pearce said the firm's own workforce is also 20-30pc down on previous years, after many employees returned home to Poland and Lithuania.

"We are losing people, and it is becoming difficult to find the right people with the right skills," he said. "It is the same for our competitors and our customers, and it will progressively get worse.

"We are all at a loss. Politically, it seems there was no plan post-Brexit, nobody in government seemed to understand just how many of these people are employed."

Staff shortages are also being felt across the pig sector - another crucial part of the farming economy in East Anglia, home to a quarter of the nation's pigs.

East Anglia's pig industry has raised concerns that labour shortages in processing plants could create a backlog of animals on farms, and shortages of pork on shop shelves (Image: Archant Norfolk © 2016)

The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) says pork processing plants have been reporting absenteeism of 10-16pc even without factoring in Covid-related absences and self-isolations. As a result, production has slowed and pigs are starting to back up on farms as they did amid Covid outbreaks at the start of the year.

“This will lead to empty retail shelves, which is likely to result in more imports at a time when consumers are seeking great British pork more than ever before,” said Dr Zoe Davies, chief executive of the National Pig Association.

"That is the irony of it - we would have to import more products from the EU because we cannot produce them here because we don't have the labour we need. It is just crazy."

A post-Brexit labour shortage threatens the supply of British food to supermarket shelves, East Anglian producers have warned. (Image: Julien Behal/PA Wire)

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

In response to the food industry's labour concerns, the government highlighted its extended Seasonal Workers Pilot scheme and a review of automation in horticulture, alongside efforts to attract more UK residents into agricultural work.

Free movement with the EU ended on January 1 and was replaced with a new points-based immigration system. Alongside this, the government said agri-food businesses will also be able to recruit those who come to the UK through other routes including youth mobility schemes and dependents of skilled workers.

The Seasonal Workers Pilot, launched in March 2019 with an annual quota of 2,500 workers, was increased to 10,000 in 2020 and to 30,000 workers in 2021 to bring workers into the edible horticulture sector.

The aim is to "supplement domestic UK labour", with Defra also working with the food and farming industry and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to raise awareness of career opportunities for UK workers to "reduce the sector’s dependency on seasonal migrant labour".

A government spokesperson said: “We understand the importance of seasonal labour in supporting a successful and effective agricultural and food sector, and are considering how best to support the needs of the sector, working closely with industry to understand labour demand and supply, including both permanent and seasonal workforce requirements.

“This year, we expanded the Seasonal Workers Pilot to 30,000 visas for agricultural workers to come to the UK for up to six months. We have also recently announced a package of measures to support the recruitment and retention of HGV drivers."

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) wants to see the seasonal workers scheme extended further.

NFU East Anglia Adviser Charles Hesketh said: “Seasonal workers are absolutely crucial to help pick, pack and grade the fruit and veg produced on our region’s farms, but also for other sectors, including our poultry farms.

“The government’s seasonal worker pilot scheme has been a key factor in keeping shortages on farms to a minimum this year, which is why it’s vital that the scheme is introduced permanently and expanded from 30,000 to 70,000 places."