Scotland's trade bodies highlight recruitment crisis in food & drink sector

Trade bodies have written to the government to highlight the recruitment crisis in the Scotland's food and drink sector.

"Both Brexit and the pandemic have accelerated existing pressures on labour availability. We have now reached crisis point putting the growth, viability, and security of many Scottish businesses in jeopardy, with knock on impacts for consumers. We need action now to save Christmas," said the Scotland Food and Drink.

The letter was signed by FDF Scotland, Scotland Food & Drink, NFUS, Scottish Bakers, Opportunity North East, Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers, Scottish Seafood Association and Scottish Wholesale Association.

The associations ask and advise that the UK Government and Scottish Government play their own parts to support recruitment in the sector.

FDF Scotland and industry partners in the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership and beyond have consulted widely with Scottish businesses on the issues.

In their recent survey of 88 Scottish businesses, 93% of them currently had job vacancies, 90% of them described their job vacancies as hard to fill, and 97% of them felt that they would struggle to fill vacancies in the future.

The reported jobs that were hard to fill cover all parts of the business and all wage ranges, with particularly difficult areas being in engineering and production operation. The geography affected covers the whole of Scotland.

Businesses are looking at all the options they have at their disposal to retain and recruit. It’s not working, and we are now rapidly approaching a crisis. It is now clear that many people who would traditionally have been attracted to work in the food industry from abroad can no longer do so. Online and delivery companies have also recruited workers during the pandemic and there is no sign of people returning to the industry.

As an industry we are determined to do what we can to tackle this issue and will continue to progress initiatives and support businesses, but it is very clear that we need immediate help in order to do so.

The associations call on the UK Government to:

• Introduce a 12 month covid recovery visa for the food and drink supply chain – to deal with immediate pressures on the industry and allow employers to expand recruitment to EU and other overseas workers
• Commission an urgent review by the Migration Advisory Committee of the needs of the food and drink sector
• Waive the fees to employment visas for the food and drink supply chain until 2022

It advises the Scottish Government to:

• Ensure support for automation is embedded in Scottish Government funding programmes where it supports productivity and the development of higher quality jobs
• Work with the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership to continue to promote the industry as a great career destination, and to provide opportunities through apprenticeships and other schemes.

"These are unprecedented and turbulent times and, until stability returns for businesses, we would ask the UK and Scottish Governments to support the industry and implement these measures. Without these, we strongly believe the current supply chain disruption will only worsen as we enter the peak trading period in the run-up to Christmas," said the associations.