The newspaper said in an article that the UK poultry industry was warning supermarkets and restaurants across the nation would have to import hundreds of thousands of the birds from European Union countries for Christmas after UK farmers reared at least 1 million fewer turkeys.
The FT quoted the chief executive of the British Poultry Council as saying that big turkey producers belonging to the group had slashed production by about 20 percent this year after Brexit cut off their supply of cheap labour.
Imported turkeys would likely come from Poland and France, the paper reported, citing experts including a breeder from Essex in southeastern England.
The warning came as the UK government reversed its policy of limiting 5,500 emergency work visas for the poultry industry to the turkey sector in an attempt to “save Christmas,” the FT also reported, in an article penned by Judith Evans, Jonathan Eley and Peter Foster.
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Source: ft.com