More than a third of food businesses operating in the UK have said they would become “unviable” without access to workers from the European Union.
The warning emerged from a survey – carried out by industry bodies including the Food and Drink Federation – into Brexit-related issues as the UK prepares for life outside the EU.
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In an even more worrying signal to the UK government, 17% of respondents said they would consider relocating overseas if they were starved of access to EU nationals, an outcome that has already been flagged by the financial community, both domestic and foreign.
The survey casts new light on the “farm-to-fork” sector’s Brexit priorities from a workforce perspective following the vote to leave the EU in June last year. The report said a fifth of the 2m EU nationals working in the UK are employed in the GBP110bn (US$140.64bn) food and drink supply chain.
Investment in skills provision was one of the longer-term recommendations posed to the government from the survey, along with supporting access to “hard-to-reach labour market solutions”. In the short term, respondents called for legislation to secure the rights of nationals from the European Economic Area currently working in the UK.
Those concerns were highlighted in the survey, when 47% of businesses said EU nationals were thinking of leaving the UK due to uncertainty over their future amid the Brexit negotiations, and 31% said they had already experienced an outflow of EEA workers.
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By GlobalDataIan Wright, director general of the Food and Drink Federation, said it is imperative the UK food and drinks supply chain “receives assurances from government about their future, and that of the wider workforce”.
He went on to say: “Food is a matter of national security, so the results of this report are of central concern to businesses across the farm-to-fork industries. It is only a matter of time before the uncertainty reported by businesses results in an irreversible exit of EU workers from these shores. This is a scenario that will hurt the UK culturally and economically.”
Other recommendations voiced in the survey were the need for the UK benefit system to make flexible working easier, increase efficiency through adequate Home Office resourcing, review the recording of immigration data, and ensure the UK does not experience a so-called cliff-edge scenario once it leaves the EU.
In a statement alongside the survey results, the FDF said: “An abrupt reduction in the number of workers from the EU able to work in the UK after Brexit would cause significant disruption to the whole food and drink supply chain. It is vital that this change is carefully managed through an orderly transition.”
As well as the Food & Drink Federation, the other bodies that conducted the survey were: The Association of Labour Providers, British Beer and Pub Association, British Hospitality Association, British Retail Consortium, Fresh Produce Consortium and the National Farmers Union.
