UK petrol pumps still dry, concerns growing over pig slaughter

LONDON, October 1 (Reuters) – Many UK gas stations were still dry on Friday after a chaotic week which saw panic buying, fights at the pump and drivers spilling fuel into water bottles after a severe shortage of truck drivers which has strained supply chains. point.

Worker shortages in the wake of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic have wreaked havoc in some sectors of the economy, disrupting fuel and medicine deliveries and leaving more than 100,000 pigs saved on farms.

Ministers in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government have insisted for days the crisis is easing or even over, but retailers have said more than 2,000 gas stations are dry and Reuters reporters in London and in southern England said dozens of pumps were still closed.

Queues of often angry drivers meandered towards the still open gas stations in London.

“I’m completely, completely fed up. Why isn’t the country ready for anything?” said Ata Uriakhil, a 47-year-old Afghan-born taxi driver who was the first in a line of more than 40 cars outside a closed supermarket gas station in Richmond.

“When is this going to end?” Uriakhil said. “Politicians are not able to do their job properly. The government should have been prepared for this crisis. It is just incompetence.”

Uriakhil said he lost about 20% of his normal income this week because he waited for fuel rather than looking for customers.

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) said its members reported on Friday that 26% of pumps were dry, 27% had only one type of fuel in stock and 47% had enough gasoline and diesel.

“Independents, who account for 65% of the entire network, do not receive enough fuel deliveries compared to other sectors such as supermarkets,” Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retail Association, told Reuters. .

Ministers say the world is facing a global shortage of truck drivers and they are working to alleviate the crisis. They deny the situation was the result of an exodus of workers from the EU after Britain left the bloc, and dismissed concerns that the country is heading for a winter of shortages and cutbacks. electricity.

Although there are truck driver shortages in other countries, EU members have not experienced fuel shortages.

PIG BREEDS IN FIGHT

The Conservative government changed its tactics this week on immigrant workers, to allow some foreign workers to come for three months to drive trucks and fill in the gaps in the poultry sector.

Opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer said the government was not moving fast enough.

“The Prime Minister should take emergency measures today, but once again he did not understand the gravity of the crisis. If he needs legislation, then let us recall Parliament”, a- he declared.

Army drivers received training this week and Sky News said they could be deployed as early as Saturday to help with fuel deliveries. Read more

In addition to the chaos around gas stations, farmers are warning that a shortage of butchers and slaughterhouse workers could force tens of thousands of pigs to be slaughtered.

The pig industry implored retailers to keep buying local pork and not cheaper EU products, saying companies would go bankrupt and cattle would be slaughtered if producers did not receive immediate support.

Weekly pig slaughter has fallen 25% since August after the pandemic and post-Brexit UK immigration rules combined to hit a meat processing industry that was already fighting for workers.

“Due to labor supply issues at the pork processing plants, we currently have around 120,000 pigs saved on UK pig farms that should have been slaughtered,” the National Pig Association said in a report. letter to retailers.

“The only option for some will be to slaughter pigs on the farm.”

The Pig Association said that despite attempts to persuade the government to relax immigration rules, it appeared to be at a stalemate.

Additional reporting by Costas Pitas, Kate Holton, James Davey and Sarah Young Writing by Guy Faulconbridge Editing by Andy Bruce, Angus MacSwan, Alison Williams, Louise Heavens and Frances Kerry

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