Over 250 agri-food COVID complaints

The Health and Safety Executive for NI (HSENI) received over 250 complaints related to COVID-19 working practices in food processing factories during the first 12 months of the pandemic.

Over 100 inspections were undertaken by staff from the HSENI’s agriculture and food group during 2020/21. These audits were mainly focused on food processing plants and livestock marts.

“The group has dealt with over 60 reports of COVID-19 clusters, mainly in the food processing sector, with four of these classed by the Public Health Agency as significant outbreaks which resulted in three factory closures,” the report states.

EFS higher level open for applications

The sixth tranche of the Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS) higher level is open for applications until 13 May.

The higher level of EFS is for environmentally designated land, such as Special Areas of Conservation and Areas of Special Scientific Interest.

Scheme agreements under the sixth tranche of EFS higher level agreements are expected to start on 1 January 2023 and will run for five years until the end of 2027.

Participants in the first tranche of EFS can apply to join the sixth tranche as their original scheme agreements are due to expire later this year.

Latest GDT auction down 8.5%

Dairy commodity markets received another setback this week following an 8.5% drop in value at the first GDT event for May. Prices averaged US $4,419, down from £4,855/t in mid-April.

Butter price dropped 12.5% with cheddar falling 8.6%. Both skim and whole milk powder fell 6.5%. It is the fourth GDT in succession to record a negative result. Despite this the index sits at 1,379, similar to early January and still significantly ahead of May 2021.

Buying demand has been hindered by a number of factors, including higher volumes traded. At Tuesday’s event, just over 25,000t were sold, up 13.5% from the previous auction held in mid-April.

The other key factor is reduced demand from China as the country enforces another COVID-19 lockdown.