Food and drink manufacturers in the east of England have warned that a fall in numbers of migrant workers is threatening the stability of the region’s £8.8 billion industry.

A new study published by Improve, the food and drink sector skills council, reports that a quarter of food and drink companies in the east region now employ workers from abroad, with an average of 4 employed per company.

But the report also found evidence that, after a period of rapid increase sparked by the admission of several eastern European countries to the EU in 2004, numbers of migrant workers are now falling, causing a headache for companies which rely on them as a labour source.

Half of those employers said low numbers of migrant workers would leave them with job vacancies, while just under a third said that it would lead to skills shortages and a drop in productivity. Overall, 73 per cent of companies said employing migrant workers had a positive impact on their business.

Improve chief executive Jack Matthews said: “These findings will be of great concern to many people in the industry. The issue is that food and drink companies turn to migrant labour because they cannot find staff in the numbers they need at home. It is nothing to do with lower wages - less than two per cent of employers give that as a reason for taking on migrant workers. It also has little to do with migrant workers having better skills - in fact, around two-thirds of them end up working in elementary roles despite being well qualified, suggesting that, if anything, the food and drink industry isn’t making the most of their talents. Companies use migrant labour out of necessity, and they have a significant and positive impact on the industry.

 “However, we need to ask ourselves whether we are over-reliant on migrant labour at the same time as we consider what we can do to retain valued workers from other countries,” continued Mr Matthews. “We have to look at boosting the domestic labour pool and the level of skills in our existing workforce in order to counter any decline in numbers of migrant workers and the potential threat to the industry’s productivity that brings. I sincerely hope that all of the key stakeholders involved will be interested in discussing how we can best achieve this in the near future.”

The study suggested that the main reason for declining numbers of migrant workers was the improving economies of the so-called ‘A8’ group of eastern European countries admitted to the EU in 2004. This is reported to be particularly true of Poland, which accounts for half of all migrant workers employed in the UK food and drink industry.

Government figures show that applications from nationals of the most recent EU accession states to work in food and drink manufacturing in the east of England fell by 1.5 per cent in 2007, the first decrease since 2004. That figure rose drastically for applications from non-EU nationals applying to work in sectors such as meat, seafood and fresh produce, which saw a decrease of 72 per cent.