Feature sidebar: Challenges for Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland
Three or four sectors of the UK’s agriculture are particularly vulnerable to the challenges of Brexit.
* In Wales, 54% of the land is severely disadvantaged, with a further 26% classified as disadvantaged.
* In Northern Ireland, only 24% of farms earn enough to support one labour unit.
Incomes from farming have been negative in seven of the past 10 years.
* In Scotland, food and drink accounts for 18% of exports, making it the most important sector. Whisky is the dominant product.
* The horticultural industry in Britain (at farm level) and the food processing industry in general have a heavy dependence on migrant labour, much of it from EU member states, and mostly from Eastern Europe.
There were more than 22,000 employees from EU states employed in UK agriculture in 2015 — this does not include seasonal workers.
Migrant workers accounted for 38% of the workforce in food manufacturing. They are particularly concentrated in meat processing, where the work is regarded as dirty, dangerous and demanding, and is unattractive to UK workers.
If Britain controls import of labour (particularly unskilled labour) after Brexit, sections of its food processing sector and its horticultural industry will have considerable problems in maintaining their output, because of labour shortages.
