Crisp Making Hit By Brexit Labour Shortage, Reveals UK Food Federation Chief<\/b>
\nCrisp production is being hit by a Brexit-induced labour shortage, the chief of the UK\u2019s food federation has said during his starkest warning yet over a drop in migrant workers.<\/p>\n
In an interview with HuffPost UK, Food and Drink Federation boss Ian Wright called on the Government to do more to reassure EU migrants they are welcome in the country as companies across the sector experience staff shortages.<\/p>\n
Wright said an owner of a medium-sized crisp manufacturer told him his factory is having to operate with a 10% drop in the work force \u2013 meaning a loss in productivity \u2013 as fewer migrants are traveling to the UK for work.<\/p>\n
The food and drink industry is the UK\u2019s biggest manufacturing sector and contributes \u00a328.2billion to the economy, meaning any slow-down in productivity could have implications for the country\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n
Speaking from his office in central London just hours after Theresa May published an open letter telling EU migrants she wanted them to stay in the UK, Wright called for the Government to go further.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Government has moved a long way from where it was the day after Brexit,\u201d he said. But when asked if he felt recent announcements had reassured EU migrants working in the food and drink industry, Wright replied: \u201cThe ones who didn\u2019t feel confident still don\u2019t feel confident, and the ones who were confident are still confident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a still a significant drain of European workers leaving and there are fewer coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latest official statistics show the number of EU citizens who came to the UK fell by 19,000 in the year to March 2017 compared to a year earlier, with the number of EU citizens leaving the country up by 33,000 over the same period.<\/p>\n
In June, the\u00a0National Farmers Union revealed the number of seasonal workers coming to work the harvest dropped by 17% in the first five months of 2017.<\/p>\n
Even more worryingly for the industry, the number of returnees \u2013 who require little if any training because of their experience \u2013 fell by 50%.<\/p>\n
According to Wright, what started with labour reductions for the harvest is now sweeping across the entire food and drink industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone I talk to is losing people and cannot replace them,\u201d he said. \u201cA guy<\/a> I was with last week – he\u2019s a medium-size crisp manufacturer. He runs three shifts, 24\/6, they don\u2019t work on Sundays, they clean the machines.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery shift he\u2019s four or five down because he can\u2019t replace them. It\u2019s a big impact on productivity and a big impact on the capacity to produce stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s now limited, not very, but more limited than he would choose to be in his ability to fulfill orders by a labour shortage. And he\u2019s in the north of England.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked what ongoing impact of labour shortages would be, Wright said: \u201cIt\u2019s tightening, it might be a little bit of drift in price, it might be a little bit of drift on availability, it might be a little bit of a drift on choice. It\u2019s just the slight tightening of the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the reasons for the drop in overseas workers, Wright believes cultural and economic factors are to blame.<\/p>\n \u201cOne is lack of certainty and a general feeling of unease about whether you should come \u2013 but clearly others did come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other is the currency,\u201d Wright said, referring to the fall in the value of sterling against the euro since the Brexit.<\/p>\n He went on: \u201cIf you\u2019re a seasonal worker and you go off and do the harvest somewhere and you get 16% less for your money for your work here and you\u2019ve got the opportunity to go to Germany or France or Spain or Italy you\u2019ll go there.\u201d<\/p>\n The drop in sterling might be bad for recruitment, but it has helped food and drink exports.<\/p>\n In the first half of 2017, exports of all food and drink reached \u00a310.2billion \u2013 up 8.5% on the previous year.<\/p>\n Increased exports to the EU helped fuel this rise, with a 9% growth in products sent to the bloc totalling \u00a36.3billion.<\/p>\n While the Brexit negotiations are well underway \u2013 albeit stuck in phase one of the process \u2013 Wright is still unclear as to what immigration system the Government wants to adopt once the UK is out of the Single Market and Customs Union.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWe are no closer to resolving the question of how you replace the flow of free movement of people, and that\u2019s been kicked into the migration advisory committee.<\/p>\n \u201cWe won\u2019t hear anything on that for some weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n While frustrated with the Government\u2019s overall lack of direction on key elements of Brexit, Wright is full of praise for Defra Secretary Michael Gove.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a fan, I think he\u2019s a big beast, he\u2019s a very, very thoughtful and able man<\/a>. I think his record at Education and Justice demonstrates that he\u2019s someone whose decisions are for the long term.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t mind there are things that you disagree with him about. I think that\u2019s important and good. He\u2019s extremely courteous.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s the most powerful Secretary of State in Defra and the most impactful for arguably a generation – certainly since Hilary Benn in the 1997 to 2010 Government, and probably before that.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s really taken the trouble to understand, think and I hope for us that he\u2019s there for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to know what\u2019s really going on with Brexit?\u00a0Sign up for HuffPost UK\u2019s Brexit Briefing – sent straight to your inbox every Thursday. \u201cThey seem to think the WTO is some sort of nirvana of free trade – well, it isn\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Even when the UK strikes free trade deals with countries including New Zealand, Argentina, and Australia, that could cause some serious problems for the UK\u2019s agricultural sector and the complicated issue of the Northern Ireland\/Ireland border.<\/p>\n Wright said: \u201cIf you bring in beef and lamb, that is in effect like dumping, and that\u2019s one of the barriers to an Irish border issue, as what the Europeans are terrified about is what they call<\/a> backdooring.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we do what Owen Paterson wants us to do and get access to cheap lamb, cheap beef, cheap whatever, it comes into our market, there\u2019s a bad effect on British beef and British lamb producers.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there\u2019s a potential of an even worse effect on Northern Ireland which is an agricultural economy, and the Republic of Ireland which is also an agricultural economy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of the reasons why the border issue is so difficult, because you are dealing with an integrated agrarian economy and the prospect of an entry of that kind is hugely disruptive to both the economics of the countries and also the social cohesion.\u201d Crisp Making Hit By Brexit Labour Shortage, Reveals UK Food Federation Chief Crisp production is being hit by a Brexit-induced labour shortage, the chief of the UK\u2019s food federation has said during his starkest warning yet over a drop in migrant workers. In an interview with HuffPost UK, Food and Drink Federation boss Ian Wright … Continue reading Crisp Making Hit By Brexit Labour Shortage, Reveals UK Food Federation Chief<\/span>
\nWright might be a fan of Gove, but he has far less time for Brexiteers who advocate pursuing trade arrangements on World Trade Organisation terms.<\/p>\n
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\nwww.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/brexit-food-crisps-gove-drink_uk_59ef6c1ae4b04917c5938930<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"