Labour shortages largely caused by Brexit will “permanently” push up food prices and cause irreparable damage to British farmers unless the Government steps in, MPs have warned.
The UK is set to become more dependent on imports as the UK food production industry shrinks, the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee found.
The Covid pandemic has exacerbated the problems caused by Britain leaving the EU, according to the report released on Wednesday.
“The evidence we have received leaves us in no doubt that labour shortages, caused by Brexit and accentuated by the pandemic, have badly affected businesses across the food and farming sector,” the report stated.
“If not resolved swiftly, they threaten to shrink the sector permanently with a chain reaction of wage rises and price increases reducing competitiveness, leading to food production being exported abroad and increased imports.”
Labour shortages have had a “particularly devastating” impact on pig farmers which has put British bacon under threat.
A lack of skilled butchers to work in meat processing plants has contributed to a backlog of more than “150,000 animals on farms, imposing additional costs on farmers” for feeding and housing animals that should have gone to slaughter.
More than 30,000 animals had to be culled and overstocking had led to a “fall in pig welfare and an increase in aberrant aggressive behaviour”, MPs were told.
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) told the committee “animals that are culled won’t go into the food chain, they will either be rendered or sent for incineration”.
The National Pig Association said culling was “an incredible waste of healthy pigs and good pork”, “incredibly damaging for our supply chains” and “financially ruinous” for farmers.
“The impact on pig farmers has been both financial and emotional,” the report found.
The war in Ukraine has now also pushed up feed prices putting further pressure on farmers.
European seasonal agricultural labourers now need to apply for a work scheme to come to the UK which, coupled with the pandemic, has resulted in many staying away.
The committee heard almost a quarter of the UK’s daffodil crop was left unpicked at the start of 2021 “due to a staggering 33 per cent shortage in seasonal workers”,
Lea Valley Growers’ Association reported 10 per cent of cucumber growers did not plant a third crop in July last year due to a lack of workers.
Vegetable grower Riviera Produce Ltd said more than £500,000 of produce was left “to rot in the fields” while Boxford Suffolk Farms said it “had to waste approximately 44 tonnes of fruit this year” because of labour shortages.
Committee chair and Conservative MP Neil Parish said: “In 2021 farmers faced an extraordinary situation – crops were left to rot in the fields and healthy pigs were culled due to a lack of workers.
“This has serious implications for the well-being of the people who put food on our tables today and in the future. The Government’s attitude to the plight of food and farming workers was particularly disappointing.”
The UK currently imports just under 50 per cent of all food and some Brexiteers had claimed Britain would more self-sufficient after exiting the EU.
Earlier this week, Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said global inflation rates and the war in Ukraine were to blame for soaring food prices.
He told LBC: “There is a global inflation in food prices which has nothing to do with Brexit.”
He added: “The fact that the wheat price has gone up because, partly, the invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s forces, is not something I was speculating on in the run-up to Brexit.”
