The UK faces a shortage of pigs in blankets this Christmas as a lack of butchers threatens to disrupt supplies of pork, industry leaders have said.
In the latest twist of the supply chain crisis hitting Britain in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit, the government has said it is “working closely” with the pig industry to “address the pressures industry is currently facing”.
As with the petrol shortages, which saw the military mobilised to drive petrol tankers, ministers are now reportedly mulling relaxing visa rules for up to 1,000 foreign butchers.
The industry is short of some 15,000 workers, according to the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), which has forced its members to just focus on keeping supermarkets stocked with basic cuts of meat.
While supermarket shelves are already missing some pork products which have been rationalised, the butchers shortage also risks causing animal welfare issues on farms as mounting numbers of livestock await slaughter, raising the prospect of an imminent cull of 150,000 pigs.
“We really should have been producing Christmas food from about June or July onwards this year and so far we haven’t, so there’ll be shortages of party foods and things like pigs in blankets. Anything that is labour-intensive work could see shortages,” a BMPA spokesperson told The Times.
The industry body warned as far back as mid-August that shortages of “the more complicated lines like pigs in blankets and gammon roasts” already looked “inevitable”, with many meat companies already six weeks behind their Christmas production schedules.
While Priti Patel, the home secretary, is reported to be against easing visa rules, the Home Office said it is “closely monitoring labour supply and working with sector leaders to understand how we can best ease particular pinch points”.
With butchers already classed as skilled workers under the UK’s immigration system, ministers have discussed relaxing the requirement for them to…