51AVÊÓƵ

As 2021 draws to an end, Hannah Binns takes a look back at key industry and political developments which made the farming headlines this year.

Supply chain issues and labour shortages may become the new normal for food businesses, as the crisis continues to deepen.

Despite being ’emotionally and financially’ crippled by the supply chain crisis, pig farmers are hoping to spread some festive cheer to consumers through song.Ìý

The UK faces a ’deepening food supply chain crisis’ if the Government does not take urgent and meaningful action to fix industry’s structural issues.Ìý

Ministers failed to bring in butchers from overseas in time to avoid a labour crisis because they were expecting furloughed workers who had been laid off to fill the shortfall, according to Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association.

Visa checks forcing foreign butchers to pass English language tests on cheese rolling, Charles Dickens and the Burlington Arcade ’smacks of things dreamed up by civil servants with little experience of the real world’.

Today marks the launch of the fourth, and potentially most important, year of our #ThisIsAgriculture campaign, at a moment in time when showcasing careers throughout the industry has never been more crucial.

Live rings have continued to deliver in Scotland as the total value of livestock throughput rose to more than £556m in 2020, a 17.5 per cent increase.

Environmental concerns and a desire to support local business was helping milkmen retain customers gained during the Covid-19 pandemic despite some drop off in numbers as people returned to the supermarkets.

Today marks the launch of the fourth, and potentially most important, year of our #ThisIsAgriculture campaign, at a moment in time when showcasing careers throughout the industry has never been more crucial.