British cattle farmers are being forced to export carcasses to the EU for processing due to a shortage of butchers.
Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, said beef producers were shipping supplies to Ireland by ferry for cutting and packing before re-importing them into the UK.
This will cost around £1,500 for each lorry load when transport fees and Brexit customs requirements - such as export health certifications - are taken into account.
Pork farmers are also expected to start shipping millions of pig carcasses to the Netherlands to be prepared in a similar process. Meat produced in this way cannot be listed as British pork for UK sale.
Pork farmers are also expected to start shipping millions of pig carcasses to the Netherlands to be prepared in a similar process
The developments provide fresh evidence of the crisis facing the industry after hundreds of butchers have left the country due to the pandemic and Brexit.
'Due to the shortage of meat workers in the UK and the limitations to recruit caused by the immigration policy, processors are taking advantage of the fact that other countries are sourcing extra labour from around the world and exporting meat to be processed and returned to this country,' Mr Allen said.
'Whilst it is an added cost it is a better option than empty shelves and animals building up on the farms,' he said.
There is a 15% staff shortage across many meat plants in the UK, climbing as high as 20% in some cases, he said.
The UK beef sector needs to fill 15,000 vacancies, a majority of them skilled or semi-skilled, he added.
Last month the British government agreed to issue 800 temporary visas for butchers to work in the UK for six months, but the government has not said how many applications have been made.
More than 10,000 healthy pigs have already had to be culled due to a backlog on farms, according to the National Pig Association.
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