The membership organisation’s call follows today’s publication of a report from trade bodies across the food and drink supply chain sector showing almost half (47%) of businesses surveyed said EU nationals were considering leaving the UK because of uncertainty about their future.

The report also finds:

• Over one-third (36%) of businesses surveyed warned they would become unviable if they had no access to EU workers.
• Almost one-third (31%) of businesses surveyed had seen EU nationals depart since the EU referendum in June 2016.
• 17% of respondents said they would seek to relocate overseas if they had no access to EU nationals.

Consequently, the federation is calling on government to legislate to secure the rights of EEA nationals living in the UK, as well as several other key recommendations. These include:

Over the short term, the government should:
• Review the recording of immigration data.
• Recognise the strategic importance of the food and drink supply chain.

Over the medium term, it should:
• Build an attractive and effective migration system.
• Ensure no cliff-edge when the UK leaves the EU.
• Increase efficiency through adequate Home Office resourcing.

Over the long term, it should:
• Invest in skills provision for the food and drink supply chain.
• Support access to hard-to-reach labour market solutions.
• Allow the benefits system to make flexible working easier.

Official figures published this morning show that net migration – the difference between those entering and leaving the UK – fell 81,000 to 246,000 in the year to March 2017, with more than half the decline being due to a decrease in net migration of EU citizens, which has fallen by 51,000.

Many workers in the food and drinks industry come from the so-called EU8 countries – Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – and the figures indicate a significant sharp rise, of 17,000, in EU8 citizens leaving the UK.