FOOD producers’ representatives have warned the supply chain is on the brink of collapse as shelves empty and firms brace for a future of Covid-closures and produce availability dictated by already decimated staffing levels.
The Brexit labour shortage backdrop created by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government means many businesses are not prepared to tackle the latest set-back in the fight against coronavirus.
The British Meat Processors’ Association said “food supply chains are right on the edge of failing”, and despite UK Environment Secretary George Eustice announcing some workers will be exempt from self-isolating if they’re pinged by the NHS app, businesses say they are still missing key details.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Friday that food supply chain workers would be among those critical roles to be exempted from self-isolation rules in Scotland.
“The latest feedback we’re getting from the front line is that the shortage of skills and workers for permanent positions is reaching a critically high level,” said Nick Allen, BMPA chief executive.
“We’ve heard reports of plants having between 10% and 16% vacancies even before absenteeism due to Covid is factored-in. On top of the underlying worker shortage, we’re also hearing from some members that between 5% and 10% of their workforce have been pinged by the app and asked to self-isolate.”
After Lord Frost’s bluster towards the European Commission for a change to the Northern Ireland Protocol he drew up was rejected, the Prime Minister, possibly unsighted by flags, continues to steer the ship in a worrying direction.
“The views of Home Office minister Kevin Foster on the skills and labour shortages which are exacerbating the woes of Scottish businesses should not have been surprising at all, given we sadly live in a time of entrenched ideological perspectives. However, his comments during a trip north of the Border last week did nevertheless amaze, and not in any sort of good way,” business editor Ian McConnell writes in his Called to Account column.
“What the comments appeared to indicate was supreme detachment from the reality on the ground,” he continues.
With the world going back to the drawing board on energy, business correspondent Mark Williamson asks should the Scottish Government end the ban on new nuclear plants?
“As the focus on net zero sharpens it may be time to revisit attitudes to nuclear energy that developed before the scale of the threat posed by emissions-related climate change was realised,” he writes in his Thursday column.
A glass was no doubt raised as shareholders who backed a £200,000 crowdfunding campaign by Whisky Hammer were bought out in a multi-million-pound deal that sees Hong Kong’s Rare Whisky Holdings take a 49% stake in the Scottish online auction site, reports business correspondent Kristy Dorsey.
Retail investors who participated in the 2019 Crowdcube fundraising – proceeds of which were used to help pay for a new purpose-built facility in Aberdeenshire – received a 2.6x return on their investment.
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