PHEASANTS, duck and other game birds could be off the menu this Christmas — owing to a shortage of pluckers.
The seasonal favourites are becoming increasingly expensive to process as suppliers struggle to find skilled staff.
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About 55 million pheasants and partridges, plus 2.6 million mallard ducks are reared each year in captivity before being released into the wild.
They are then shot for sport, before being processed for food.
However, getting them ready for sale is becoming harder because of the lack of skilled pluckers in rural areas.
Experts said game suppliers in the north found it slightly easier to find workers than those in the south — but the situation was dire nationwide.
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Steve Frampton, managing director of online meat retailer Wild and Game, said one supplier had reported a 70 per cent drop in workers.
He added: “Many game processors are located in rural areas where there is limited availability of potential staff.”
Rural groups are calling on the government to increase the number of seasonal workers to help ease the shortfall.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has commissioned a review of labour shortages in the food supply chain.
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It says it supports the game industry via the “seasonal workers visa route”.
