King’s Lynn, UK: Vegetable producer Alfred G Pearce reports output up to 30% down as a result of Covid, Brexit, and the driver shortage.
The company, which has three sites, grows 60,000 tonnes of carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, onions and butternut squash a year, supplying UK food distributors and supermarkets.
Jack Pearce, business development manager, said the labour intensive nature of the industry meant the shortage of workers was “partly down to the pandemic, but also structural problems due to Brexit”.
The company was restricting working and turning down business as a result, while haulage companies have “lorries sitting ready to go but physically haven’t got people to drive them”.
“With a chilled product like ours we rely on just-on-time deliveries,” he said. “In some cases products are being rejected as they are delivered late. Unfortunately we are having to bring it back and dump it. It’s happening on a weekly basis now. We are talking thousands of pounds each weekend.”
