11

While the agricultural and food manufacturing sectors have a good record on investing, one way...

Conclusion
While the agricultural and food manufacturing sectors have a good record on investing, one way of meeting the challenges of the new immigration policy is for the food supply chain, assisted by innovative and well-designed Government schemes, to become more capital intensive and both drive forward and exploit technological opportunities. However, this will take time to have an impact, and it is likely that many roles throughout the food supply chain will be difficult to affordably mechanise for many years, especially for smaller businesses. This further points to the difficulties the industry faces with the sudden changes to the availability of labour as a result of the Government’s new immigration policy.
Paragraph Reference
67
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government Not Addressed
8.1. The Government is grateful to the committee for highlighting the importance of technology and automation for the future of the agri-food sectors, and acknowledge the financial and logistical challenges that small businesses in particular will face when considering mechanising their operations. Technology and automation have the potential to bring change to all parts of the food supply chain, and as the committee acknowledges, many sectors have already successfully integrated automation into parts of their operations. 8.2. We are delighted to inform the committee that, along with the measures acknowledged in the report, Defra will lead a review into automation in horticulture this year. The review will report on ways to increase automation in the sector and meet the government’s aim of reducing the need for migrant labour in the long term. Further details of the review will be published in the Spring.
Source
Committee Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Inquiry Labour in the food supply chain
Report Third Report - The UK’s new immigration policy and the food supply chain 22 Dec 2020 HC 231
View on Parliament website
Timeline
Recommendation age 5.4 yrs
Report published 22 Dec 2020