CULLING pigs on farms in Scotland has not been ruled out as protests grow over culls south of the Border.
An outcry was sparked after it was revealed on Thursday that farmers had been forced to start culling their pigs because of a shortage of workers at abattoirs and meat-processing plants.
Hundreds of pigs have already been culled and their carcasses buried or burned.
The main abattoir for pigs in Scotland is in Brechin and is currently on a four-day week due to a lack of labour, according to farmers’ union, NFU Scotland.
Anger over the waste grew after Boris Johnson joked that the pigs were going to die anyway for bacon sandwiches.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon criticised the Prime Minister for trivialising the issue, and furious industry leaders said it showed he either didn’t care or didn’t grasp the difference between animals being culled and put into landfill and being killed for the food chain.
Brexit and the pandemic have been blamed for the shortage of workers, but food industry leaders have reiterated concerns about the delay of import checks on EU goods entering the UK, which they say not only undermines UK pig producers amid a crisis but is a threat to biosecurity, with African Swine Fever sweeping through the bloc.
They want Westminster to relieve the problem by easing visa restrictions for meat-factory workers and overseas butchers – but their pleas have been ignored.
An NFU Scotland spokesperson said the number of pigs starting to build on farms was “concerning”.
They said: “Some farms south of the Border have got to the stage where they have run out of space – we’ve not reached that here yet, but we are monitoring the situation.
“It is a concern but no-one wants to get to the stage of culling.”
The spokesperson said if the Brechin abattoir could get enough labour to go back to a five-day week, it would start to reduce the backlog.
They added: “The labour shortage is a combination of the pandemic and Brexit and there is a backlog developing on most pig farms in Scotland. They are not getting the numbers away they would like and the stumbling block is the shortage of workers and butchers in abattoirs and meat processors.
While cattle are affected to a certain extent, they are mostly outside and there is a longer supply chain for beef than either pork or chicken.
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