From Poles to Filipinos? UK food industry needs postBrexit workers

MILTON KEYNES, ENGLAND: Britons who voted for Brexit in the hope of slashing immigration seem set for disappointment.

In the farming and food industries at least, any exodus of Polish and Romanian workers may simply be followed by arrivals of Ukrainians and Filipinos.

From dairy farms to abattoirs, employers say not enough Britons have an appetite for milking cows before dawn or disembowelling pig carcasses – jobs often performed by workers from the poorer, eastern member states of the European Union.

With unemployment at a fourdecade low of 4.3 per cent, even Brexit supporters acknowledge the industries will need some migrant workers after Britain leaves the EU in 2019, ending the automatic right of the bloc’s citizens to work in the country.

Employers praise eastern European staff for their skills and work ethic.

“They are a massively valuable part of our workforce and a massively valuable part of the food industry overall,” said Adam Couch, chief executive of Cranswick plc, a meat processing group founded by pig farmers.

Food and drink is the largest UK manufacturing sector, with a turnover of 110 billion pounds ( US$ 147 billion) in 2015, government figures show.

Much of it depends heavily on staff from elsewhere in the EU, mainly the post- communist east.

For example, the British Meat Processors Association says 63 per cent of workers in the sector come from other EU countries and in some plants it can be as high as 80 per cent.

The proportion has risen partly due to increased demand for more labour intensive products such as boneless meat.

Association members have found it impossible to recruit the additional employees needed from Britain, the BMPA says.

Pro-Brexit campaigners say Britain needs to reduce its reliance on EU workers.

“Our sights should be firmly set on raising the skill level of our own domestic workers, employing domestic whenever we possibly can and automating,” said Owen Paterson, a member of parliament for the ruling Conservatives.

But Paterson, who as a former Environment Secretary was responsible for UK agricultural policy from 2012-14, added: “Where there is a clear shortage and no technological solution, by all means bring in labour but the good news is we wouldn’t be limited to the EU. We will have the whole world to choose from.”

On the meat production line, Romanian Dumidru Voicu explained the attractions of working at Cranswick’s plant in Milton Keynes, a town northwest of London.

“I just want to do something with my life, save some money and make my own business. The money for a week here is the money for a month in Romania,” said Voicu, who arrived in the country about the time that Britons voted to leave the EU in June last year.

An estimated 27,000 permanent staff from elsewhere in the EU worked in British agriculture last year, House of Commons staff noted in a briefing paper for members of parliament. — Reuters