Dairy giant Arla has warned of further price rises unless the Government "urgently" addresses farming labour shortages. The UK's largest dairy co-operative said the industry labour shortage was fuelling food price inflation and "could well lead to a crisis in milk production, if it is not addressed as a matter of urgency".
A survey of Arla's farmer owners found that almost three-fifths (58%) are finding it harder to find staff compared to 2019, before the pandemic and the end of free movement of people to and from the EU. More than a tenth of farmers (12%) said they were considering leaving dairy farming altogether because of staffing issues. Arla has called for clearer pathways into farming via apprenticeships, as 55% of farmers polled said that few or no applicants for jobs currently had the right skills.
Paul Savage, director of agriculture for Arla, said: "The last 12 months have been incredibly challenging for our farmer owners, as events like the war in Ukraine have driven up the cost of producing milk to levels we have never seen before. The shortage of staff in the food and farming sector has compounded this and we are at serious risk of continued food price inflation and longer-term food security issues if we don't tackle this now."
