At the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) Food Security Summit, which was attended by the environment minister, George Eustice, several food industry organisations spoke about the potential challenges businesses face in the new year.
Prior to the conference, a group comprising businesses and trade bodies from across the food industry warned of further disruption to UK supply chains if long-term solutions are not implemented by government.
The coalition comprised the NFU, the Food and Drink Federation, the National Pig Association, British Retail Consortium, Arla Foods UK and ABP UK.
The organisations called on the UK government “to set out a positive food and farming policy that creates a resilient and sustainable supply chain to underpin domestic food security.”
Challenging times
The Guardian reported that Minette Batters, NFU president, had found it challenging to remain in discussions with ministers over the past year while also getting them to understand the problems faced by the industry. She said: “We walk a tightrope of remaining at the table, and being locked out of the room […] It is for government to take it seriously, but there is a disconnect, but what do we do?”
‘Not enough seasonal workers’
Julian Marks, managing director of West Sussex-based grower Barfoots, said that the seasonal worker scheme, which is to continue to accommodate up to 30,000 workers from outside the UK in the new year, “really isn’t adequate.”
He said: “Soft fruit alone takes 30,000, and an idea that you can then spread that 30,000 over the ornamental industry as well as the edible industry is crazy and is going to create some real tensions next year.”
Marks told the conference that the grower had to throw away more than 700 tonnes of courgettes during the summer as a result of the labour shortages.
“We need time to adjust”
Bob Carnell, chief executive of ABP Food Group added that it was “very frustrating” that those who attended the conference “didn’t get any acknowledgement of [the labour shortages] from the Secretary of State.”
He added: “We have a business model that was set with 60% of colleagues as non-UK nationals, we went into a global pandemic which has stretched everybody, and we really need time to adjust. That is all we are asking for: to redefine the business model to allow us to move forward and that question is not being listened to and it is frustrating.”
Carnell said it would be possible to recruit some UK workers to fill vacancies, although the process takes time.
Dr Zoe Davies, chief executive of the National Pig Association (NPA), also spoke about the challenges faced by the pig industry over the last year. She said that the lack of abattoir workers was still having an impact on the supply chain. According to NPA, 30,000 healthy pigs, including at least 10,000 piglets, have so far been killed on farms since the cull began in October.
