Visas for 800 butchers in bid to beat pig crisis
THE Government has announced a package of measures to support the pig industry, including allowing visas for up to 800 additional foreign butchers.
Up to 800 pork butchers will be eligible to apply for visas from the existing allocation in the Seasonal Workers Pilot Scheme up until December 31. The visas will allow them to travel and work in the UK for up to six months.
The Government said the adjustment is temporary and is in addition to foreign butchers already being eligible since December 2020 to apply to come to the UK through the existing skilled worker route.
It also said it will fund a private storage scheme in England which will enable meat processors to store slaughtered pigs for three to six months so that they can be processed at a later date.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said: “A unique range of pressures on the pig sector over recent months such as the impacts of the pandemic and its effect on export markets have led to the temporary package of measures we are announcing today. This is the result of close working with industry to understand how we can support them through this challenging time.”
The Government said last month 5,500 temporary visas will be issued to poultry workers and 5,000 to HGV drivers in a bid to prevent shortages in the run-up to Christmas.
It had been warned that up to 150,000 pigs could be destroyed as the labour shortage in meat processing has led to a backlog of animals ready for slaughter. It means farms are struggling to find space for the extra pigs – leaving them with no choice but to cull them in the face of overcrowding concerns.
Prior to Mr Eustice’s announcement, the House of Lords earlier heard from Labour frontbencher Baroness Jones of Whitchurch who highlighted the latest editorial in Pig World magazine, which was scathing of the Government’s handling of the current crisis, accusing it of “arrogance and incompetence”. She said: “The fact is there are 150,000 pigs which are unable to be slaughtered for consumption and already farmers have had to cull and destroy over 6,000 healthy pigs.”
Responding, Lord Benyon said: “We care deeply about this sector, the people that work in it, the welfare of the animals concerned, and want nothing more than to smooth out the perfect storm of a variety of different issues which have brought this to a head at this particular time.”
Referring to labour problems that arose in the industry, he said: “These are principally because, at the end of the Covid restrictions, many of the overseas workers returned home and we are seeking to find ways of bringing large numbers of them back.
“There is a deficit of between 800 and 1,000 butchers we want to fill.”
Liberal Democrat Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville said: “It is heartbreaking to raise stock from piglets to fully grown pigs ready for slaughter and the supermarket shelves, only to have to cull them on farm and their meat be wasted.”
Lord Benyon said: “Part of our discussions, and the announcement I hope will be able to be made imminently, reflects what is also done in the poultry industry where those changes were made to encourage more workers to come over and operate in that sector. And we hope that this will alleviate the labour problems in this sector.”