Difficult times: Brexit to create a shortage of meat inspectors
Meat inspectors are going to be hard to find in the UK after Brexit as there is already a shortage on the labour market in this field, warns the company that provides veterinarians for the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
There is already a "crisis point" reached in the vet business as 98% of the workforce in the field come from outside of the country and 20 vets a month are considered lost due to their return to the countries of origin, explained Jason Aldiss, managing director of Eville & Jones, in a BBC interview.
Official Veterinarians (OVs) audit and inspect meat processing sites, certify imports and exports, and carry out official disease control measures such as TB tests. "Our recruitment programme is running at full pace and yet we're not able to keep up with the loss of vet staff that are moving out. Brexit has hit as far as we're concerned - we are at crisis. My company has already lost £2.5m because of paralysis in government, lack of direction and the lack of an understanding about the real implications of what is happening now", declared Aldiss.
In his opinion, vets should be included on the UK Shortage Occupation List but no real action has been taken so far in this direction.
"The impact of EU Exit on the veterinary workforce is something we are considering as part of our wider work looking at potential audit and assurance arrangements after the UK leaves the EU", an FSA spokesman said.
Nevertheless, the industry looks worried about the impact of Brexit on the businesses. 63% of the workers in meat processing plants are from other EU countries and the poultry industry has a ratio of 60% dependence on the non-UK workforce. "The British poultry meat sector is incredibly dependent on non-UK labour. Nearly 60% of our workforce are EU nationals. Access to skilled workers is imperative for our sector to carry on feeding the nation with safe, wholesome and affordable food," said British Poultry Council Chief Executive, Richard Griffiths.
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