Mediaboss Marketing

Agri-food representatives have told Agriculture Minster Edwin Poots that the UKs immigration system is the main catalyst for staff shortages facing the industry here.

ne MLA described the situation as a perfect storm of failed regulations, economics and other forces that have severely impacted the sector.

Mr Poots said these shortages are causing difficulties across the food processing sector, and for abattoirs in particular, a situation he described as worrying.

Despite offering competitive wages, the minister said, agri-food firms here have struggled to recruit a fully-staffed workforce from the pool of domestic workers here, so have had to rely on migrant workers to fill the labour gap in the past. Changes to immigration rules made in Westminster, however, now mean migrant labour is limited to skilled jobs that meet certain salary levels and English language requirements.

Mr Poots added: Industry representatives have indicated that the new UK Immigration System is the main catalyst for the current shortages.

Engagement with industry indicates that there continues to be sizeable labour shortages, particular with respect to the number of slaughter plant operatives and butchers in our abattoirs and processing plants.

These labour shortages are causing difficulties across the food processing sector, however, it is the pig sector that is reporting the most serious difficulties with processing capacity, resulting in a rollover of pigs on farms each week.

Other pressures facing the pig sector are an increase in supply alongside a global fall in pig prices. Late last year, the UK Government announced temporary visas for 800 butchers for the pig sector in order to ease staffing pressures. Applications for this scheme have now closed and the DUP minister warned short-term schemes will do nothing to alleviate the agri-food staffing problem in the medium to longer-term.

This is a worrying situation and I continue to take all steps within my power to help mitigate the problem. A significant aspect of this is my continued and extensive engagement with Whitehall given that Immigration Policy is a reserved matter, he said.

Independent unionist MLA Claire Sugden said: Rules made in Westminster not in Stormont mean access to migrant labour is now limited to skilled jobs that meet set salary levels and English lan guage requirements.

As a result, we simply cannot find enough slaughter plant operatives and butchers in our abattoirs and processing plants.

The knock-on effect of this is that animals cannot be slaughtered and processed quickly enough. Farmers and plants have these animals queuing up for longer, which means farmers are not just spending more on feed the price of which has also soared in recent months but actually having to pay price penalties for overweight animals in the case of pigs.

It truly is a perfect storm of failed regulations, economics and other forces that together are conspiring to make meat farming and processing across Northern Ireland increasingly unsustainable.

SDLP agriculture spokesperson Patsy McGlone said the main reason for the issues is Brexit.

Minister Poots also acknowledges that there is no obvious solution to these problems. Perhaps if his party stopped threatening to collapse our institutions and supported an agreement between the EU and British Government to resolve the small number of outstanding issues around the Protocol, we could then turn our attentions to coming up with a plan to support businesses like these and help them attract the staff they need, he said.

Read more:
Staffing crisis in agri-food industry is down to immigration rules, Poots told - Belfast Telegraph