URGENT ACTION is needed to address labour shortages across Scotland’s red meat supply chain if the UK Government is to ensure there is sufficient food to feed the nation by the end of the year.

This message was delivered by the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) who took part in an all-industry meeting with Scottish Government ministers to discuss serious concerns over labour shortages.

The body have warned that without swift action, there will be gaps appearing on retail shelves later in the year and have stressed that access to EU workers must be a priority.

“The UK Government is responsible for ensuring there is sufficient food for the nation and the current situation surrounding labour shortages in the meat processing and distribution network is putting that responsibility in serious danger of collapse later this year,” said a spokesperson from the red meat body, adding that red meat processing plants are experiencing a 10-15% shortfall in labour. “In addition, labour shortages in the haulage sector is making it increasingly difficult to secure any one-off requirements to collect raw materials from farms or any equivalent one-off requirements to deliver end product to retailers.”

They went on to stress that the current situation is only going to worsen as the country moves into busier periods where demand for meat will increase: “This is a relatively quiet time of the year, certainly as compared with the autumn and pre-Christmas period when demand can be expected to rise sharply. At that point, there is a real risk that supplies will run short and gaps will begin to appear on retail shelves.

“Even if Government acts now to address this crisis situation, it is likely that meat supplies will still be under pressure towards the end of the year.”

They pointed out that the shortfall in labour is from EU staff who returned to their home countries during the final weeks of the Brexit process and are not showing any signs of being willing to return.

The spokesperson continued: “We need action from Government and we need it now, a point we made forcefully to ministers last week. Our priority request is to that we need access to EU workers to operate our businesses this year. One option is to provide such workers with short term visas – say for two years. We also need the government to include butchers, etc. on their shortage occupation list (SOL).

“We have been told many times, of course, to go out and recruit staff from the existing UK workforce. While we continue to do this as part of our own efforts to resolve the current crisis, members’ experience to date is that the skill sets required by meat processing companies are not currently available in the UK, certainly not widely available,” they explained. “We are also competing for staff with many other sectors of the UK economy who are currently under-staffed, such as the hospitality sector and online businesses. Finally, training new staff to work in meat processing is at least an 18-24 month operation, a timeline which does not equate with the food needs of the country’s consumers.”

Following the roundtable discussion with industry bodies, Scotland’s Employment Minister Richard Lochhead has confirmed he will be writing to the UK Government on the issues raised around HGV haulage and the UK immigration system, which a spokesperson for the Scottish Government said is 'not fit for purpose': “We will continue to liaise with industry representatives on actions to support employers in immediate and longer term actions.”