The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has urged the government to ‘radically rethink’ after criticizing ministers for failing to understand and tackle growing labor shortage issues in the agricultural industry.

The report singled out Environment Secretary George Eustice and Home Secretary Kevin Foster for specific criticism.

Committee chairman and Tory MP Neil Parish said: “In 2021 farmers faced an extraordinary situation – crops were left to rot in the fields and healthy pigs were slaughtered due to a lack of food. of workers. This has serious implications for the well-being of the people who put food on our tables now and in the future. The government’s attitude to the plight of food and agricultural workers has been particularly disappointing.

The committee’s report says that as of August last year, there were about 500,000 job vacancies among the country’s 4.1 million food and agriculture jobs.

He said: “The evidence we have received leaves no doubt that labor shortages, caused by Brexit and accentuated by the pandemic, have severely affected businesses in the food and agricultural sector. If not addressed quickly, they threaten to shrink the sector permanently with a chain reaction of wage increases and price rises reducing competitiveness, leading to the export of food production overseas and the increase in imports.

“We are also extremely concerned about the impact this is having on the well-being and mental health of people working in the sector.”

The report says the food production sector has always been dependent on foreign workers, especially from the EU.

He said there had been a “particularly devastating impact” in the pig sector, where a shortage of skilled butchers led to at least 35,000 pigs being slaughtered on farms. The National Pig Association, which provided the figure to the committee in January, said it was “widely agreed that the true number will be much higher”.

He noted: “We know from the experience of the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001 how severe the mental impact of on-farm slaughter is on farmers and it is never done only as a desperate last resort.”

The committee warned that the situation had a “financial and emotional” impact on farmers.

The report said that some measures, such as the provision of additional visas for butchers, have been taken by the government, but the issue has not yet been resolved.

The government offered 800 temporary visas for butchers, but only 115 were issued and the industry said the real shortfall is around 10,000 to 12,000 such workers.

The commission said it was ‘particularly disappointed’ with Mr Eustice’s comments ‘suggesting the current plight of pig farmers was merely the materialization of a business risk for which companies should be prepared’.

He said Mr Eustice’s comments ‘demonstrated a lack of understanding of the issues faced by pig farmers, many of whom have to slaughter animals and thus suffer damage to their businesses but also to their mental health and well-being. to be”.

The committee found that visa schemes for butchers, as well as poultry workers and lorry drivers, were “seriously flawed” – implemented too late for Christmas Eve and offering workers only very limited time periods for working in the UK, making the schemes unattractive to prospective overseas employees. But he said other similar but better run programs may be needed again in the future.

The report also noted labor issues in other parts of the food production industry, with companies testifying to having to leave hundreds of thousands of pounds of produce to rot in the fields in due to a lack of staff.

A farming company in Suffolk said it wasted 44 tonnes of fruit.

Labor shortages have also been reported in the poultry industry, leading to production cuts, as well as 20% of orders for supermarkets delayed due to similar issues in the food processing sector. .

Shortages of truck and warehouse drivers also compounded distribution problems.

Attempts to raise salaries have met with only limited success, the committee said.

A company called Sharrington Strawberries raised the rates for seasonal pickers by 50%, but still was only able to recruit two-thirds of the 60 workers it needed.

The report says that in the longer term, more effort is needed to encourage UK workers to take up jobs in the sector.

He said a long-term strategy is needed taking into account how “attractive education and vocational training programs” could attract British workers.

The report also decries what it calls “the government’s failure to understand the labor issues facing the food and agriculture sectors, and the real-world experience of businesses on the ground.” “.

He said: ‘The government has also had an unwelcome tendency to blame the industry for not doing more to address the problem or for making full use of the immigration system – sometimes on the basis of incorrect information.’

He added: “The most serious example of this was when the Minister for Safe and Legal Migration MP Kevin Foster suggested that labor shortages in pork production did not seem not be a real problem as only one major pork processor had applied for a license to sponsor skilled worker visa applicants.

‘When we pointed out to the Minister that the big four processors were in fact licensed, he corrected the record but argued that ‘the key point remains’ that only one big processor had ‘sponsored butchers to date’.

“Companies have found the skilled worker visa route unattractive for several reasons that may deter them from seeking workers through it (and exercising a license they hold).

“Furthermore, Mr. Foster was unaware of the nature of the English language requirement for the Skilled Worker Visa and used his misunderstanding (that only ‘basic conversational English’ was required) as basis for blaming the sector for not making full use of the skilled worker visa program.

The report concluded: “The government must radically change its attitude and work with the sector to devise solutions that help to quickly solve the problems it faces, in the short, medium and long term to help the UK food industry and allow to thrive. . Failure to do so risks shrinking the sector and leading to higher food inflation at the cost of UK competitiveness, making the country more dependent on food imports as we export our food production capacity – as well as the jobs it supports – overseas.

Committee chairman Mr Parish said: “Although some of the reforms proposed by the government have helped in the short term, and we have agreed that we must seek to expand the national workforce, this will not happen. not overnight. In the meantime, it must use the powers available – including on immigration policy – ​​to support the sector. Otherwise, we will export our food production and import more of our food.

“Most importantly, the government needs to change its attitude towards the food and agriculture sector – trusting them and acting quickly when they raise concerns. Our food and our farmers depend on it.

A government spokesperson said: “We fully recognize that the food and agriculture industry is facing labor issues and we continue to work with the sector to alleviate them. This includes Defra’s forthcoming response to the Automation Review – the first step to understanding how government can support the adoption of automation technologies and reduce horticulture’s dependence on migrant labour. seasonal.

“We have given greater certainty to the industry by allowing the seasonal worker scheme until the end of 2024, allowing overseas workers to come to the UK for up to six months to work in the sector. horticulture. Our new points-based immigration system has also widened the pathway for skilled workers to many other professions, including butchers, who can now be recruited from anywhere in the world.

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