It’s beginning to look a lot like… well, sort of
Some may be reluctant to admit it, but Christmas is around the corner. In just over 10 weeks, we’ll be sitting around our respective dining tables eating, pulling crackers, and then eating again. After the washout of Christmas 2020, where Covid restrictions made it impossible to enjoy a “normal Christmas”, many hoped that 2021 would bring a return to the Yuletide cheer of yesteryear. Except, there might be a different kind of spanner in the works this year. Supermarket bosses have warned that there may be a shortage of some of our favourite Christmas goodies as we approach December, the result of a lack of drivers to deliver those goodies around the country.

Be it because of Brexit, Covid rates leading to isolation periods and a lack of staff, or a combination of both, there is a risk that some of your favourite festive items will be missing from your home this Christmas. “We’ve already had one Christmas cancelled at the last minute. I’d hate this one to be problematic as well,” said Richard Walker, the chief executive of supermarket chain Iceland in recent weeks. Tesco chairman John Allan, meanwhile, said: “Normally the supermarket industry would start building stocks from now in readiness for Christmas. Longer-life products first, things like Christmas puddings and so on, shorter-life products, like fresh turkeys, very late in the day. “At the moment we’re running very hard just to keep on top of the existing demand and there isn’t the capacity to build stocks that we’d like to see.”

So what could we be short of come December 25?

Turkeys
There are concerns that poultry farmers will only be able to produce 80% of their usual output this year, due to a shortage of workers. Richard Griffiths, chief executive at British Poultry Council, said: “It would be irresponsible to grow more birds than can be slaughtered and processed, which is incredibly frustrating when the demand is there for quality British products.”

Pigs in blankets
Ah, a lot of people’s favourite Christmas lunch treat, crispy bacon wrapped around a small crispy sausage. We can’t have Christmas without them, surely? A spokeswoman for British Meat Processors Association said it’s a possibility.
“Given the current workforce shortages, meat companies are finding it difficult to see how they’ll dig themselves out of this,” she said. “Part of the issue is that it’s more difficult to time the supply of pigs in the same way that you can for Christmas turkeys, so production of Christmas favourites like pigs in blankets has to be done well in advance, and normally should have started at the beginning of July.
“The problem will continue to spiral until something changes. That ‘something’ must be an injection of new workers.”

Petrol
We all need petrol to do those all important Christmas rounds, delivering presents to loved ones and making sure you get to wherever is hosting this year’s festivities. But after weeks of chaos at the pumps, there are no guarantees that everything will be back to normal by Christmas. Despite many petrol stations now having ample stocks of fuel, many in parts of England continue to be low on quantity. Policing Minister Kit Malthouse told the BBC last week: “We are still seeing strong demand in parts of the country around fuel, albeit that there is no problem of supply into the country.
“The distribution mechanism is trying to respond to this unprecedented demand.”

Gifts
Now hang on a minute, no turkey or pigs in blankets is one thing, but no presents?
Retailers, like other industries, are being hit hard by a lack of drivers, and that could mean a delay in delivering toys and other gifts, or enough of them, to stores in time for Christmas. Experts in the toy industry fear that consumers will face higher prices this Christmas as a result of economic pressures that have disrupted their plans.

Bins
We all generate even more waste over Christmas, thanks to more packaging, more food waste, more wrapping paper, but rubbish collection is something else which could be affected due to driver shortages.

Veg
Surely there’ll be enough veg to go around?
Labour shortages in the fruit and vegetable market could have a real impact this Christmas, according to experts.
Jack Ward, chief executive of the British Growers Association, said: “If you cannot get the labour, you end up going through the crops and you might just pick out the class one and leave some of the other produce that could have been picked from those fields. “I think the longer term issue is it just continuously erodes the confidence of growers.”

Christmas trees
What the hell are we supposed to hang our baubles on if we run out of Christmas trees?
One farmer explained this week why even the most important festive item of all might be harder to come by this year.
“With Brexit, the paperwork involved with importing the produce to grow has increased significantly,” said Rob Morgan. “There’s also a huge lack of drivers and general transportation, as most us will be aware by now, as well as lengthy shipping delays, which is really driving up demand for local producers and farmers.
“Many wholesalers are too afraid to buy from abroad these days, because of the delays and the paperwork and so on. It’s great for local farmers like me to have that extra support, but there simply aren’t enough trees at the moment to meet this sudden increase. A Christmas tree takes around 12 years to grow, so we can’t just produce more overnight.”