A new migration report which suggests outside of seasonal workers there should be no explicit route for low-skilled labour is ‘missing the point’, pig farmers’ leaders claim.

The National Pig Association (NPA) said the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) suggestion that the supply of low-skilled workers could be made up of existing EU workers, family labour and an expanded youth mobility scheme, rather than a dedicated employer scheme ignored evidence which the NPA and others had put to it across the food and farming supply chain.

The NPA said the industry was reliant on permanent EU labour, often in so-called ‘low-skilled’ positions. NPA chief executive Zoe Davies said: “We are incredibly disappointed by this report as it completely misses the point about the role played by EU workers in the pig sector and right across agriculture and blatantly dismisses the valid concerns that we and others have raised.”