By Tom Woolman, poultry industry consultant
Back when Patrick Hook did his Nuffield scholarship in 2015, I remember him suggesting that a shortage of labour was just as much of a threat to the poultry industry as bird flu. I have often thought about these comments over the past few years, when the bottom fell out of the labour market in 2021, thanks to those two horsemen of the apocalypse: the Pandemic and Brexit. I heard of cases, in both egg and meat sectors, where directors ended up on the factory floor in large businesses, just trying to get the job done.
The AI epidemic was terrifying, not only in its ferocity for two years, but also how it has seemingly disappeared without warning this year. Our experience of bird flu is rather like being in the plotline of Jaws. The beast has disappeared back under the water but you can be sure it is planning its next strike. Keep your ears out for the music is all I can say.
Our labour challenges resemble a different film, unhappily dragging on like an Oppenheimer epic where you end up questioning where it is all going. Despite having record net migration figures in this country, there seems to be a complete lack of people with the skills we need to keep our industry running. It isn’t just the obvious jobs that we think about on farms and in factories. There are a whole bunch of auxiliary roles in farm maintenance where people are struggling to get the basics done. These aren’t minimum wage jobs where employers are competing with the likes of supermarkets for labour, these are skilled professions servicing water, gas and all the advanced kit that we now have in our poultry housing.
Just the last week I have spoken to two businesses who work in these areas, in different parts of the country and encompassing the broiler and egg sectors. Both of them are being severely limited in their ability to service farms because of not having enough people. This shortage of engineers isn’t just a poultry industry problem. Competition for people is tight, they can often work in other places which may be better paid and less demanding.
In 2010, the British Poultry Council set up scholarships to encourage people to pursue careers in the sector. I know because I was one of the people who was lucky enough to receive one. Is it time that we did something similar for the engineers in our industry?
Anyway, I’ve got to dash. My part time plumbing course starts in ten minutes.