Written evidence submitted by British poultry council (CFSF0039D)

BackgrounD

1. The British Poultry Council is the voice of the British poultry meat sector and the trade association for producers of poultry meat from chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese.
2. A billion birds are reared for meat every year, providing half the meat the country eats. The UK is one of the largest exporters of high value genetic breeding stock. Our sector relies heavily on our people, their expertise, and skills.

Summary

3. Test and trace schemes have been introduced at many production sites and are working well. They help manage the flow of people in and out of the workplace and have added to the covid security of those sites.
4. Level of absence varies from site to site but feedback from BPC members suggest that all remain on a knife-edge in terms of overall numbers and the potential for losing essential skills.
5. While poultry meat production remains consistent the additional costs introduced by covid and Brexit have added significant financial pressures that are yet to manifest at consumer level.
6. The BPC continues to work closely with the Government on measures to mitigate any impact on national food security and offset the risk of a supply chain disruption.

WEATHERING THE STORM

7. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the value and purpose of food and demonstrated the importance of resilience in our food supply chains. While we have faced a number of challenges including localised shortages, spikes in demand, availability of key workers - an integrated and robust supply chain has allowed us to feed the nation throughout this crisis.
8. From farmers and vets who look after our birds, through butchers and engineers who keep our factories working, to drivers and distributors who get food to the shelves – key workers in the poultry meat supply chain have gone above and beyond the call of duty to keep this country fed. Government’s recognition of the crucial role played by food workers in delivering safe, wholesome, and affordable food for the nation
   has been well received,
9. The combination of mitigating the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic, facing huge increase in administration and paperwork relating to Brexit bureaucracy and learning to live with avian influenza has put a significant amount of pressure on the British poultry meat industry.
    
10. BPC member businesses have shown resilience and leadership by working incredibly hard to weather the storm while delivering a Christmas that everyone desperately needed and ensuring plenty of food remains affordable and available for all in the foreseeable future. Working with dwindling resources, our businesses have put new measures in place to recruit talent, energise our supply chains and inject new investment and innovation to keep the food chain moving.

ALL HANDS ON DECK

11. The British poultry meat supply chain has shown tremendous strength through cross-sector collaboration while mitigating the consequences of the outbreak despite dwindling resources.
12. Our key workers, who are the foundation of our industry, have proven to be the lifeblood of this nation in these extraordinary times. Government’s decision to exempt our non-UK seasonal workers travelling to the UK from quarantine restrictions played a pivotal role in delivering a fantastic Christmas to households across the nation.
13. Government’s commitment to ensure all key workers are able to access childcare and continue to work has enabled our businesses to maintain an ‘all hands on deck’ approach throughout the pandemic and helped offset the risk of a supply chain disruption.
14. Relaxation of certain regulations around transport, such as the temporary relaxation of drivers' hours rules and lifting of
    some restrictions on night-time deliveries in order to secure the supply of essential goods has helped ease the pressure on
    our supply chains.
15. The COVID-19 crisis has brought into sharp relief the importance of key workers in the poultry industry, many of whom are EU nationals, helping to feed the nation. Looking ahead, Government must ensure that food producers have continued access to key workers, including non-UK labour, so that they can continue putting food on every table.
16. Within the poultry meat sector, 60% of our permanent workforce (24,100 people) are EU nationals, and every year we have about 7,200 vacancies that need to be filled with non-UK workers. If these vacancies cannot be filled, it will have a significant impact on the production of, and therefore cost of food - all of which will pose a risk to affordability and potentially force people to go without food.

A healthy workforce

17. Our members have implemented rigorous COVID-19 testing regimes for key workers across all sites and strictly adhered to Government guidance to break the transmission of the virus. All of which has ensured that poultry meat farms and plants are being viewed as low risk for a possible route of transmission and majority of our sites are now considered amongst the safest and COVID-secure parts of the community.
18. Protecting our people and maintaining a healthy workforce has been our top priority since day one. A culture of openness and trust alongside robust contingency planning and record keeping has enabled us to identify critical roles and train more workers to prepare for periods of absences and mitigate the impact of the pandemic on food supply.
19. Continued availability of PPE was a key focus during 2020. Immediate concerns over the availability of PPE have eased but members remain cautious about their supply chains for all inputs given the impact that Brexit is having on trade.

Testing and vaccination

20. As the Covid-19 vaccination programme rolls out across the country it is worth reflecting on the current status of controls currently in place across the UK poultry meat industry. As a crucial part of feeding the nation we, like all the other food sectors, have kept on going throughout the pandemic. The ups and downs have been huge, from our #KeyWorkers being applauded as #FoodHeroes to entire plants being closed due to disease outbreaks. Our people and their safety have been our first priority and for the last year many companies have faced serious operational challenges due to necessary COVID-19 related absences.
21. 
    Towards the end of 2020 the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), supported by the Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) approached food sectors with the idea of trialling mass testing using rapid-test lateral flow devices (LFD) to help manage the spread of COVID-19 within workplaces. Up to March 2021 Government is supplying all the tests with the participating businesses contributing the facilities and other infrastructure and equipment. Both DHSC and Defra should be praised for the way they have engaged and supported the sector across this period.
22. Many British Poultry Council members took up the offer and with some now months into it there is consensus that mass testing has been a considerable help in understanding and managing Covid-19 in the workplace. The schemes are voluntary, but we have seen excellent take-up from the workforce, and how it is generating confidence and trust. With all the workplace interventions already present the testing is allowing businesses to better manage the needs of employees.
23. There were some concerns about mass testing, and it is worth acknowledging them. The first was that a site would lose a critical amount of its workforce. We know many businesses are on a knife-edge in terms of employee numbers, and concern over losing essential positions is always present, but we are not aware of production threatening absences. The mass testing is identifying a steady flow of positives (including asymptomatic positives) along with others who will need to self-isolate, but the flow in and out of businesses has so far been manageable.
24. There was a fear that some workers would not participate and would see it as a threat to their income if they could not work. Businesses have taken it upon themselves to acknowledge this issue and have worked closely with their workforces, unions, and agencies to provide support across all employees. Overall, the need for health and wellbeing – and the reassurance that mass testing provides – has been uppermost in people’s minds, but this is an issue that will continue to be monitored carefully.
25. A concern for businesses is the impending increase of cost when Government stops providing the tests in March. Two test per week for large workforces (approximately 30,000 people work in slaughterhouses and further processing plants across the sector) would represent a significant cost at a time when production is under immense pressure to deliver affordable food. This ‘COVID-19-mode’ that businesses have been in since last year is not sustainable and cannot be absorbed indefinitely by companies. Government could help us immeasurably by continuing to provide the LFD tests until such point as vaccinations reach the food sectors.
26. At what point in the queue for vaccinations are food sectors? Beyond the immediate priority cohorts, the strategy for continued roll-out becomes opaque. Knowing where we are in the line will be incredibly helpful to businesses in their continuity and contingency planning.

Tackling food poverty

27. A recent report suggests that more than a third of households in the UK have not managed to put aside any money since the first coronavirus lockdown began last year, and more than half are worried about running out of savings.
28. The pandemic has accelerated the limitations of our food system for those who need it the most, with millions of people in the UK requiring food aid. The ability to access food by those on low income is not a new problem but it has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
29. Access to a secure supply of food, employment, education, opportunities, the welfare system, and health all play a crucial role in tackling food poverty. BPC member businesses are working closely with food redistribution charities including Fareshare to ensure a secure supply of poultry products for those who are struggling to put food on their table.

Financial impact on business

30. The financial cost of the pandemic, ongoing Brexit bureaucracy and challenges faced at the border has been significant for the UK poultry meat sector. While in a more robust position than other food sectors through long-term integration, efficiency, and investment in technology, the current economics of production cannot be sustained for an extended period.
31. BPC members up and down the country have put new measures in place to stabilise their busines for the future, maintain liquidity to withstand disruption and ensure production can be maintained in both the short and longer term.

32. At present, both the timeframe and extent of the pandemic’s long-term impact on the poultry meat sector is unclear, but its consequences will continue to be felt even after the spread of the virus is contained. It is likely that the shape of the sector will have to adapt to a different environment in both the UK and trading markets.

Lessons learnt

33. 
    The Government must recognise food as a special case and treat it as a national security issue going forward and the National Food Strategy provides an opportunity to do that.
34. We urge the Government to recognise the pivotal role of those working in the food supply chain and ensure that our workers are no longer categorised as ‘low-skilled’ in future immigration policies.
35. Government must set out a clear strategy stating where food sectors are in the queue for vaccinations. Knowing where we are in the line will be incredibly helpful for poultry meat businesses in their continuity and contingency planning.

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