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Vegetables are being left to rot in fields due to ‘chronic’ crop picker and driver shortage

Vegetables are being left to rot in fields due to 'chronic' crop picker and driver shortage 2

Vegetables are being left to rot in fields due to a ‘chronic’ crop picker and driver shortage, as recruitment bosses urged UK officials to let in ten times more foreign workers. 

Guy Moreton, CEO of MorePeople, which specialises in hiring food service supervisory and management roles, said the Government’s restrictions on foreign workers are to blame.

‘We need five to ten times as many people as the Government is letting in at the moment,’ he told Lincolnshire Live.

‘All of my clients, and I have hundreds of clients, are all short of people, with some of them hundreds of people a day short. 

‘It is an absolute disgrace that they are leaving perfectly good food in the fields because they can’t pick it. If they get it picked, they often can’t get it to the depot because of the chronic shortage of drivers.

‘Food waste is a cardinal sin, to leave good quality food that costs money and resources to grow, to leave them in the field is horrendous. 

‘The Government’s lack of flexibility on this is appalling, I think they’ve got this wrong and they are not listening.’

It comes amid a wider crisis across the food supply chain caused by a lack of workers and HGV drivers and congestion at global trading ports.

Vegetables are being left to rot in fields due to a 'chronic' crop picker and driver shortage, as recruitment bosses urged UK officials to let in ten times more foreign workers (stock image)

Vegetables are being left to rot in fields due to a ‘chronic’ crop picker and driver shortage, as recruitment bosses urged UK officials to let in ten times more foreign workers (stock image)

British beef and pork producers are sending animal carcasses to EU to be butchered before being re-imported as they fight ongoing labour shortage 

British cattle farmers are being forced to export carcasses to the EU for processing due to a shortage of butchers.

Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, said beef producers were shipping supplies to Ireland by ferry for cutting and packing before re-importing them into the UK.

This will cost around £1,500 for each lorry load when transport fees and Brexit customs requirements – such as export health certifications – are taken into account.

Pork farmers are also expected to start shipping millions of pig carcasses to the Netherlands to be prepared in a similar process. Meat produced in this way cannot be listed as British pork for UK sale.

Mr Moreton went on: ‘There is absolutely a major issue regarding hard-working, down-to-earth people who want to pick crops in the field and pack in packhouses.

‘That’s not just in agriculturally related organisations but also prevalent across the whole of the food industry.

‘Nearly every food client that we deal with that supplies supermarkets with food has a lack of hourly-paid workers in the factories.’ 

He also said that the pandemic is another reason for the shortages of workers, adding: ‘Covid hasn’t helped because a lot of Eastern European workers went home and don’t want to come back to the UK and that’s mainly because of travel restrictions.’ 

The National Farmer’s Union’s county adviser for the south of Lincolnshire, Jo Musson, said: ‘This is a perfect storm of labour supply issues.

‘Our growers are producing high-quality vegetables, salad, flowers and plants for sale all over the country.

‘But because of the severe shortage of workers, we’re seeing crops left to rot in fields and not enough people to wash, pack and transport them to retailers.’

Lincolnshire Rural Support Network’s head of charity, Amy Thomas, said: ‘The situation is just getting worse and worse.

‘Just having someone to talk to, share and unload the day-to-day concerns, can help to see a clearer path through those challenges.

‘The important thing to remember is that there is always someone there to talk to. Please don’t suffer in silence.’

A Government spokesperson said: ‘The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain – which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges.

‘We have expanded the seasonal workers pilot to 30,000 visas for workers to come to the UK for up to six months, and continue to work closely with industry to understand labour demand and supply, including both permanent and seasonal workforce requirements.

‘But we also want employers to make long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce, and our Plan for Jobs is helping people across the country retrain, build new skills and get back into work.’

The global supply chain crisis has caused chaos and hampered the UK’s economic recovery, with shortages on supermarket shelves across the country as well as delayed deliveries and increased prices.

It is partially caused by supply being unable to keep up with the rapidly increasing demand as the UK economy reopens. Staff shortages, Brexit, Covid and wider economic conditions are also contributing factors.

Guy Moreton, CEO of MorePeople, which specialises in hiring food service supervisory and management roles, said the Government's restrictions on foreign workers are to blame (stock image)

Guy Moreton, CEO of MorePeople, which specialises in hiring food service supervisory and management roles, said the Government’s restrictions on foreign workers are to blame (stock image)

Crisps in CRISIS! Wotsits, Quavers and ready-salted Walkers could be out of stock for ‘several weeks’ after IT glitch disrupts supply 

Supplies of crisps including Wotsits, Quavers and ready-salted Walkers are set to be disrupted for several more weeks following an IT glitch, raising the prospect of the festive favourites being in short supply this Christmas.

The Leicester-based manufacturer said products had been affected by the glitch, adding it was ramping up production of its most popular crisp flavours including cheese and onion and salt and vinegar.

A number of products are unavailable on the Tesco website and empty shelves have been seen in some supermarkets, amid a wider crisis across the food supply chain caused by a chronic lack of workers and HGV drivers and congestion at global trading ports.

A Walkers spokesman told MailOnline: ‘A recent IT system upgrade has disrupted the supply of some of our products. Our sites are still making crisps and snacks but at a reduced scale.

‘We’re doing everything we can to increase production and get people’s favourites back on shelves. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience caused.’

Across the UK food supply chain there are currently about half a million job vacancies, which represents 12.5 per cent of the total workforce required.

The haulage sector has also been badly affected by the crisis, with the Government pledging to recruit thousands more lorry drivers for the Christmas period.

A shortage of drivers previously delayed fuel deliveries, which sparked panic-buying and a weeks-long fuel crisis.

Jonathan Neame, chief executive of Shepherd Neame, warned of ‘terrific supply chain squeezes’ on the food and drink industry that are expected to last for the next six to nine months.

Industry leaders have insisted a combination of Brexit and strict immigration controls, plus coronavirus, where many foreign workers chose to go home, have triggered the crisis.

Experts said the HGV driver shortage is due to a combination of factors including EU employees returning home after Brexit and lockdown restrictions causing the cancellation of 40,000 HGV tests. They also cited poor wages and the closure of a tax loophole for some drivers.

Earlier this week, it emerged that British cattle farmers are being forced to export carcasses to the EU for processing due to a shortage of butchers.

Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, said beef producers were shipping supplies to Ireland by ferry for cutting and packing before re-importing them into the UK.

This will cost around £1,500 for each lorry load when transport fees and Brexit customs requirements – such as export health certifications – are taken into account.

Pork farmers are also expected to start shipping millions of pig carcasses to the Netherlands to be prepared in a similar process. Meat produced in this way cannot be listed as British pork for UK sale.

‘Due to the shortage of meat workers in the UK and the limitations to recruit caused by the immigration policy, processors are taking advantage of the fact that other countries are sourcing extra labour from around the world and exporting meat to be processed and returned to this country,’ Mr Allen said.

‘Whilst it is an added cost it is a better option than empty shelves and animals building up on the farms,’ he said.

There is a 15 per cent staff shortage across many meat plants in the UK, climbing as high as 20 per cent in some cases, he said.

The UK beef sector needs to fill 15,000 vacancies, a majority of them skilled or semi-skilled, he added.

Last month the British government agreed to issue 800 temporary visas for butchers to work in the UK for six months, but the government has not said how many applications have been made.

The haulage sector has also been badly affected by the crisis, with the government pledging to recruit thousands more lorry drivers for the Christmas period (stock image)

The haulage sector has also been badly affected by the crisis, with the government pledging to recruit thousands more lorry drivers for the Christmas period (stock image)

Turkeys could be imported from France and Poland for Christmas if crippling shortage of workers threaten supermarket stocks 

Supermarkets will be short of home-produced fresh turkeys this Christmas with stores turning to imports from France and Poland, MPs have been told.

Industry leaders say it is evidence of a wider crisis across the food supply chain caused by a chronic lack of workers.

UK farmers decided to raise fewer chicks this year because they could see there would not be enough staff in processing plants to handle them.

In evidence to an inquiry by MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, chairman of the British Poultry Council, Graeme Dear, said there was a ‘likelihood’ there will be a shortage of UK turkeys for Christmas.

Around 20 per cent fewer birds have been reared this year on British farms.

 

More than 10,000 healthy pigs have already had to be culled due to a backlog on farms, according to the National Pig Association.

Chief executive Zoe Davies: ‘This is not excess supply, farmers have been contracted to grow these pigs, but the facilities are taking a quarter less than they agreed because they simply don’t have the butchers.

‘The Government has to help now because all the processors have tried very hard to recruit lately, wages have gone up exponentially over the last few months. The reality is that most people in the UK do not want to work in abattoirs and it doesn’t matter how much you pay them.’

Rules mean farmers can only kill their own animals for consumption on the farm, and are banned from selling the meat commercially.

It comes after MPs were warned supermarkets will be short of home produced fresh turkeys this Christmas with stores turning to imports from France and Poland.

The warning came from farm industry leaders, who say this is evidence of a wider crisis across the food supply chain caused by a chronic lack of workers.

The nation’s turkey farmers decided to raise fewer chicks this year because they could see the country would not have enough workers in processing plants to handle them.

Farmers’ leaders said the labour shortages are a disaster for British food production with the result that huge quantities of fresh produce and milk is going to waste.

The doomsday scenario was set out by farm industry leaders in evidence to an inquiry by MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, into the impact of labour shortages.

Chairman of the British Poultry Council, Graeme Dear, said there is a ‘likelihood’ there will be a shortage of UK-produced turkeys for Christmas. Around 20per cent fewer birds have been reared this year on British farms.

The Government recently announced that it would allow in 5,500 poultry plant workers on short-term visas, however this came too late to boost the number of turkeys being raised.

Mr Dear said: ‘We would have loved to have known about that in June, and therefore could have placed enough turkeys for a full Christmas.

‘We will do our utmost to make sure that Christmas is as normal as it can be, but there is a likelihood that there will be a shortage – had we known back in June or July that would have been fixed.

‘The irony is that we may find ourselves having to import turkey from France and Poland for a British Christmas, probably with some of the very workers we trained and left to go back to their homelands.’  

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