UK

Pigs are culled in the UK due to labour crisis

Brexit

Meantime, prime minister Johnson says the industry should pay better wages for British workers.

Posted on Oct 11 ,16:48

British farmers have started to cull pigs as they are trying to avoid a backlog. For weeks now, the sector urged the government to take measures and allow foreign workers to enter the country in order to avoid this situation. For the moment, NPA executive director, Zoe Davies, has confirmed the slaughter of some 600 pigs, and has warned that the next step will be a "massive slaughter."
Problems appeared in the food supply chain is a topic that is present for months now in the UK. "The current supply chain issues are systemic and long term, but we have an immediate and worsening short-term labour crisis right now.
Since Brexit and following the pandemic the problem has become much worse. Industries are now competing with each other for a dwindling pool of workers and the current labour crisis has seen workers in strategically important sectors like food manufacture and social care being enticed away by other sectors that can afford to hike wages 20 or 30%. To restore some balance in the labour market every employer (including the public sector) may have to follow suit, but it will mean consumer price inflation.
The problem requires both short and long-term solutions in order to allow the industry to adjust to the realities of the post-Brexit labour market, which were only made clear once the Brexit deal was finally signed at the end of January 2020," said the British Meat Processors Association in a press release.

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