The culling of pigs in the UK as a result of Brexit continues
As early as October, Der Spiegel and the FAZ reported that healthy pigs were being culled on farms in Great Britain. At first there were only a few hundred. On November 30th, Agrar-heute reported 16.000 pigs that had to be slaughtered on the farms. Today the world reports that there are now 30.000 pigs that have so far been emergency slaughtered in the corona crisis. And why all of this? British pig farming is on the brink of collapse, the industry complains. Because in England there is a lack of foreign specialists for slaughtering and meat processing. British pig farms are facing a dreary end of the year. A good 30.000 animals had to be emergency slaughtered in the past few weeks, said a spokeswoman for the National Pig Association (NPA). The actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher, as not all farms report the emergency slaughter. "The UK pig farm is on the verge of collapse as labor shortages are affecting our ability to process the number of pigs we already have on farms," said NPA managing director Zoe Davies.
There is currently no improvement in sight in the situation. Pig breeders, farmers and meat processors in Great Britain have been complaining about a lack of slaughtering staff for months. The bottleneck in the industry is estimated at almost 15.000 people. Among other things, the new immigration regime has been causing problems since Brexit. Two thirds of the approximately 95.000 employees in slaughterhouses came from abroad in recent years, many of them from the European Union. But the stricter immigration rules mean that immigration for this professional group is almost impossible. A lack of manpower has also led to considerable bottlenecks in other areas. The country has been particularly concerned with a shortage of truck drivers since the summer. Because of this, for example in September, many petrol stations could not be supplied with fuel for some time.
But the farmers cannot simply wait until the battle situation relaxes. In order not to violate the requirements for species-appropriate husbandry, too many pigs must not crowd into a tight space. More and more farms are reaching their limits with newly born piglets and therefore have to be slaughtered in an emergency. These animals are slaughtered directly on the farms, the meat does not meet the requirements for food and ends up in the garbage. More and more farmers are deciding to give up the business in view of the problems, colleagues report. “It's been a challenging year emotionally, but financially it's been painful,” Kate Morgan, who runs a pig farm in Yorkshire, told the BBC.
She is basically grateful for the government's advances so far. However, they would not have alleviated the problems on the farms a bit. The supply of pork in the country is still secured, thanks in part to imports from the EU. “Today, 60 percent of the pork eaten in the UK comes from the EU. It would be a farce to see that number rise as more healthy British pigs are culled and their meat thrown away on the farms, ”Davies said. Source: https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article235703066
