Christmas dinner could be at stake this year due to major food shortages across the UK.
Turkeys and pigs in blankets could be in short supply this festive season due to a lack of delivery drivers, abattoir staff, fruit pickers and packers.
Food prices in supermarkets could also rise by around 5 per cent by the autumn to make up for lack of workers, The Guardian reports.
The British Growers Association has warned there is a “real prospect” of food shortages in supermarkets due to a serious lack of labour and crops rotting in fields.
Problems are being caused by a chronic lorry driver shortage, with more than 100,000 fewer than usual.
EU workers who previously came to the UK to pick and pack fruit and vegetables have also struggled to meet the criteria set by the government’s new points-based immigration system after Brexit.
Jack Ward, chief executive of the British Growers Association, said: "If you cannot get the labour, you end up going through the crops and you might just pick out the class one and leave some of the other produce that could have been picked from those fields.
“I think the longer term issue is it just continuously erodes the confidence of growers.
"The margin in vegetable produce is not that great at the best of times and if, at the end of the year, you see mounting losses, the obvious solution is to go and do something different which, at a time when we should be consuming and producing more vegetables, is a sad state of affairs.”
The shortage of drivers has been caused by Brexit due to increased checks and costs at the border.
The coronavirus pandemic has made the problem worse because many workers returned to their country of origin in the past year and have not been able to come back.
The UK supermarket industry relies on an army of drivers and warehouse workers to bring fresh produce from the fields of Europe to its shelves.
The Road Haulage Association has joined forces with others from the industry in a desperate attempt to avoid 'critical supply chains failing' at an 'unimaginable level'.
