The End of the Pack House Worker?

In 2021 there is a crisis in our midst that doesn’t get the press coverage it may otherwise get in other, more ‘normal’ times.

Before food makes it to our plates, a great deal of work is done to put it there. Fruit and vegetables are picked from fields before being sorted, processed and often trimmed. Meat and fish is cut, processed and inspected. Then it’s all wrapped, packaged and labelled before being sent off on the next leg of its journey. But these tasks are laborious and often less than comfortable as outdoor picking requires physical fitness and dexterity. In the heat of the summer, very early starts are required to avoid the peak of the British summer heat too (believe it or not), whilst workers in factories often find themselves working in freezing temperatures, not to mention the long hours. Alongside unwelcoming and unattractive working conditions, the nature of this work doesn’t always provide the worker with stability, either. These jobs are often undertaken as zero-hour contracts, temporary or seasonal work, or agency work. In order to keep the costs of food down in supermarkets, the pay is often kept low, too. In a 2017 briefing paper published by the Food Research Collaboration observing trends in UK food manufacturing, much of the work in the UK food sector is labelled ‘precarious’, defined as “employment that is uncertain, unpredictable, and risky from the point of view of the worker”. 

So who does this work? 

This type of labour is not popular amongst the British, in fact, in an article from the BBC, figures given by the National Farmers Union reveal that only 11% of seasonal workers in 2020 were UK residents. With a lack of local labourers, employers have often used schemes to employ migrant workers from countries in Europe to make up their workforce. An article by Natwest Business Hub comments that an estimated 63% of the workforce in the meat products sector comes from the EU. 

Like in many other sectors, the abrupt arrival of the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to travel in the spring and summer of 2020, and an estimated third of the migrant labour that would usually have arrived to work as seasonal pickers actually made it to the UK, having most likely arrived before the lockdown. Consequently, government-backed campaigns were launched to recruit UK workers and make up for the losses, but although there was strong interest at first, very few actually took up jobs and even less stayed past a few weeks. The pandemic-led shortage of EU workers and reluctant Britons gave us a glimpse of what UK food sector employment may look like post-Brexit and freedom of movement. 

Indeed, there were many stories of produce being left to rot as farms struggled to recruit EU workers in 2019.

Will we see a return of local recruitment schemes or even migrant worker programmes to facilitate employment to the workforce?

Is there another option?

Automation and robotics are seeing accelerated demand in the agricultural sector, and as more and more specialised systems are developed, there becomes an answer for all agricultural and horticultural needs. With the introduction of robot pickers and automated processors, the workforce gap is being filled for farmers and food manufacturers all over the world. 

Although the value of automation is expected to reach US$87.9 billion by 2025 and the manufacturing industry has seen heavy investment in automated and robotic systems, some farmers remain reluctant to transition to automated labour, in favour of low-cost migrant workers. But as circumstances continue to make for difficult recruitment, things look a little bleak for the 2021 harvest. It remains apparent that investment into automation will be necessary to keep up with the demand for labour to efficiently and successfully feed our nation. 

Robot Systems that Use 3D Vision, AI and Water Blades

Scorpion Vision is a key player in the vegetable processing industry. Specifically, the company builds systems that can undertake menial tasks in the packhouse. Where teams of people wield knives and machetes to trim and cut vegetables before packing, a Scorpion Vision based system can supplement this workforce by undertaking the same work using a combination of 3D vision, artificial intelligence, robot arms, servos and water blades.

The benefits of this kind of technology doesn’t just extend to a more reliable and lower cost workforce. There are quality benefits too. A vegetable can be trimmed more accurately with less give away or wastage and there is evidence to show that the shelf life of fresh produce can be extended with the use of a water jet cutter, where effectively, each time a vegetable is cut, it is cut with a new knife. This means there is no cross contamination of disease or dirt which in turn means things last longer before they start to decompose.

Further information from:

Scorpion Vision Ltd

www.scorpionvision.co.uk