Pumps Dry, Medicine Disruptions, and Concerns Over Pig Culls – Reuters

By James Davey and Guy Faulconbridge

LONDON – More than two thousand gas stations across the UK remained without fuel on Thursday due to a shortage of truck drivers, a situation beginning to disrupt deliveries to pharmacies. Farmers have warned that a lack of butchers could lead to a significant cull of pigs.

In a tumultuous week marked by altercations at gas stations and individuals resorting to filling old water bottles with petrol, British officials have claimed that the situation is improving, although they deployed soldiers on Wednesday to assist with driving fuel tankers.

Officials have dismissed allegations that the truck driver shortage stemmed from the UK’s exit from the European Union, noting similar deficits in other countries following COVID-19 lockdowns that disrupted truck driver testing.

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents 65% of the UK’s 8,380 gas stations, reported that as of Thursday, 27% of pumps were empty, 21% had only one type of fuel available, while 52% had sufficient supplies of petrol and diesel.

"This is running out quicker than usual due to unprecedented demand," stated PRA Executive Director Gordon Balmer, who indicated that incidents of verbal and physical abuse against gas station employees were still being reported.

Chasing updates, reporters from Reuters visited ten gas stations in London and its vicinity on Thursday, finding only three operational. Long lines of drivers formed at the open stations as staff worked to manage the queue.

The trucker shortage has also started to impact pharmacies, with representatives from the sector commenting, "The whole supply chain has been affected from inbound wholesale depot supply down to outward deliveries to pharmacies."

In addition to fuel and medicine shortages, the farming sector warned that hundreds of thousands of pigs might need to be culled within weeks unless the government provides visas for an influx of butchers.

Transport ministry data indicated a 6 percentage point drop in motor traffic on Monday compared to the previous week, marking the lowest volume seen on a non-holiday Monday since July 12, when COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.

These disruptions, along with the anticipated rise in prices, threaten to hinder the UK’s economic recovery, which is projected to grow by 7% this year.

New data from the Office for National Statistics indicated the economy grew more than anticipated during the April-June period, but it now appears that a sharp slowdown may be taking hold due to post-lockdown challenges, including the truck driver shortage.

The fuel crisis has drawn criticism in various European capitals, where some officials suggest that Britain’s truck driver deficit is a direct result of the choice to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. UK ministers have countered this notion, despite the exit prompting tens of thousands of EU truckers to leave the country.

The meat processing industry is facing an acute shortage of butchers and slaughterers, a problem exacerbated by the pandemic and post-Brexit immigration policies that have restricted the entry of Eastern European workers.

According to Lizzie Wilson, policy services officer at the National Pig Association, the lack of butchers has caused processing plants to operate at just 75% capacity, leading to a backlog of pigs on farms and welfare issues.

"There’s about 120,000 pigs currently on farms that should already have been slaughtered, butchered, and integrated into the food chain," Wilson explained.

Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers Union, warned that a cull of up to 150,000 pigs could be just a week or ten days away.