UK food industry suffers from labour shortage

A report by the Association of Labour Providers (ALP) has revealed that 70% of UK food and beverage manufacturers are suffering from a shortage of low and unskilled labour. ALP promotes responsible recruitment practices for labour organisations supplying workers to food processing manufacturers.

According to the trade association, food production in the UK depends on an adequate supply of workers for harvesting, processing, packing and distributing produce.

An increasing number of UK food producers and manufacturers are struggling to hire enough workers, highlighting concerns over the decrease in migrant workers coming from the EU, according to the report. The EU unemployment rate fell from 9.4% in 2015 to 7.3% in November 2017.

In a survey of 109 companies, 70% of labour suppliers said that they were unable to meet clients’ demands in the food industry for Christmas 2017. Moreover, 64% of suppliers spoke of a decline in the number of people applying to work in the food processing industry. Only 14% of suppliers reported an increase in applications since 2016.

Looking forward to 2018, 43% of suppliers said that they did not expect to meet the labour demand for food manufacturing, with 49% saying the same for seasonal agricultural work. Seven in 10 companies expect a labour shortage in 2018, while one in three are anticipating a labour crisis. Labour shortages are leading to increased costs, relocation, scaling down and threats to viability.

Chief executive of ALP David Camp concluded in the report: “Food growers and manufacturers are reporting real impacts on their businesses caused by labour shortages from increased costs through wage and benefit enhancements and increased overtime working to relocating and scaling down operations.”​

The ALP stated that it is the responsibility of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to minimise irreparable damage to the UK food industry caused by the labour and skills shortage.

A report by the National Famers’ Union in November 2017 found that fruits and vegetables were being left to rot on British farms due to the labour shortage.

Fruit farmer Ali Capper commented saying: “We ended up having to send 100 bins of Gala apples for juice. Those apples should have been class 1 apples on supermarket shelves. To a farmer, sending class 1 apples for juice is a waste.

“We had double the number of no-shows and double the number of early leavers this summer, which added to our labour bill. Usually we have a waiting list of 700 to 800 people in July. This year [2017] we had zero.”