To receive an update from the Farming Community.

Ed Hurley from Copas Traditional Turkeys gave a general farming update, namely discussing two items on labour and avian influenza.

Regarding farm labour, Ed Hurley explained that the turkey business resolves around the last 4 weeks of the end of every year, and if this does not go well, an entire year of business was gone. He then conveyed that the business had experienced some challenges in labour due to the new regulations and issuing of visas. Originally, he explained, labourers were recruited directly across Europe every year; but the new visa system meant that two companies acquired a monopoly on the issuing of visas. This had increased labour costs by 30% through agency costs and further 10% on visa costs, accumulating to 40% increase in costs overall. This thus caused a change in thinking and operation.

With the current visa scheme coming by the end of 2023, Ed Hurley hoped that the new visa scheme would allow a smooth transfer of skilled labour. He explained that Copas Traditional Turkeys (and the wider turkey industry) were competing with Europe in attracting labourers and were struggling to attract and compensate these labourers properly as significant costs were going to labour providers.

Ed Hurley moved onto avian influenza. While avian influenza had been around for years and had been managed, it had become an endemic in 2023, creating challenges. He explained that it had significantly affected the turkey industry. In the last winter in 2022, 5 million birds were affected, with 2.8 million of these being turkeys, causing the rise in prices in turkeys during Christmas 2022. He added that the goose industry had been greatly affected as well.

While there was no serious outbreak in the local areas, Ed Hurley explained that restrictive and quarantine-like measures between farms were nevertheless implemented to mitigate the endemic. He also stated that bird feed companies were reducing their support to smaller businesses due to the business risk.

When asked by the Chair if there was anything to help match employees and employers, Andrew Durrant said it could be something that could be investigated offline. This, he suggested, may include connecting Ed Hurley to the economic growth team who identify employment opportunities for local people, whether from colleges and school or the adult employment market and therefore create employment pathways.

Ed Hurley replied that he had never been averse to hiring local people, but he added that he needed to hire labourers who were absolutely committed to job in spite of any hardships.

Councillor Cannon asked Ed Hurley on how he perceived the public’s reaction or DEFRA’s (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) communication with the public on bird flu. Ed Hurley replied that public concern caused people either to quickly buy turkeys or panic in catching bird flu and thus hurting the industry further. He added that DEFRA needed to improve their support and response.

Geoffrey Copas stated that the Borough could not really do much to respond to the issue of avian influenza and that this was a national issue which should ideally be raised to Theresa May, MP for Maidenhead.

While acknowledging that the issue was on a national level, Councillor Johnson stated that the Borough could focus on increasing local productivity and utilising the local labour market as there were skill shortages and unemployment in the Borough. He also stated that there were tentative discussions with the national government on devolution in Berkshire and that those discussions could involve skills, training and investment.