Staffing shortage in the food industry: this is how you find talent

The Dutch food industry is running at full speed, but behind the scenes, the pressure is mounting. Staffing shortages. A growing population drives up production demand, while the workforce is rapidly aging. This combination is putting both the sector and the labour market under serious strain. According to the latest ING research, by 2030, as many as one in seven employees will retire, that’s around 18,500 professionals who will need to be replaced (ING, 2025). And finding new talent is becoming increasingly difficult.

Spoiler: the talent is still out there. But the days of simply posting a vacancy online and waiting for applications to roll in are over. If you want to make a difference now, you need to invest in personal contact, the right channels, and the development of your people.

Visit any job board and you will be flooded with vacancies, from operators to quality and production staff. The demand for food professionals is everywhere. But where does this shortage come from?

First, COVID-19. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic hit the Dutch economy hard, prompting many older employees to leave the sector. A shame, because this group brings invaluable expertise.

In 2024, one in four employees in the food industry was over 55, a 10% increase compared to ten years ago. Meanwhile, fewer young people seem interested in the sector. The number of new higher education agro & food students fell by a staggering 26% in five years, to just around 2,500 students. And this at a time when the need for specialist knowledge is only increasing (ING, 2025).

At Green People Recruitment, we have also seen a rise in requests to help fill roles such as QA and technical service positions. And yes, we have noticed that filling these specialist roles often takes longer. But the good news is that there are still effective ways to find the right talent.

With fewer agro & food students entering higher education, it is more important than ever to make your organisation visible to students. Partner with vocational and higher education institutions, host guest lectures and workshops, and offer internships to give young professionals an early introduction to your company. Integrate them into your team, and do not see them as “cheap labour” but as your future employees. Share your knowledge, train them, and connect them to your employer brand.

At Green People Recruitment, we have a partnership with HAS Green Academy Venlo. We provide guest lectures and attend the annual careers fair to introduce future professionals to our services and our clients in the food sector. This way, we can connect with local talent early on and provide our clients with motivated starters.

It may sound like a cliché, but your next QA Manager or Account Manager might already be walking around your organisation. Today’s employees have endless options on the labour market, making it all the more important to retain the knowledge and experience you already have.

Invest in training budgets, offer competitive rewards, and provide clear growth opportunities. Create a great place to work where employees are genuinely excited about your mission and feel valued in tangible ways.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

AI is sweeping through the HR landscape. The range of AI-driven tools promising to be “the next big thing” is overwhelming, from faster CV screening, to chatbots scheduling appointments, to tools that send generic LinkedIn requests to potential candidates.

Of course, AI has real benefits. When used correctly, it can make processes faster and more efficient, reducing time-to-hire significantly. But when AI takes over, and your work is driven solely by data and algorithms, you risk losing the most important aspect of recruitment, personal contact.

The right candidate is found through a personal recruitment strategy. Send a personalised invite tailored to their profile, pick up the phone and invite them for an introductory meeting, give them a tour of the production floor, and let them shadow for a morning. The real connection happens during a good conversation, listen, ask questions, and show genuine enthusiasm.

It may make the process a little longer, but it greatly increases the chance of hiring the right person. Does this mean you should ditch AI entirely? No. Use AI tools at the start and end of the process.

At Green People Recruitment, we have a rule: AI should help us make the candidate experience more personal. When someone applies for a vacancy, we use smart matchmaking technology to quickly link CVs to relevant vacancies, giving us an instant overview of whether their experience and education match the job requirements. During the interview, the consultant can then dive deeper into the soft skills and motivations of the candidate.

When the interview takes place, our consultant uses an AI-powered note-taking tool to record the conversation, transcribe it, and summarise the key points instantly. This means the candidate gets our full attention, we can focus on their motivations and ambitions, and we save time on admin. The candidate feels heard, and we know exactly what they are looking for.

In an age where social media content can feel generic, repetitive, and maybe even boring thanks to AI, you can stand out by turning your employees into brand ambassadors to attract new talent. No one knows your organisation better than your employees, and if they are happy, they will be more than willing to talk about it at a birthday party, a bootcamp session, or a networking event.

Word-of-mouth remains the most effective marketing strategy. We trust people close to us far more than company claims, so why not apply this to recruitment?

How do you turn employees into ambassadors? First, make sure they are happy, feel appreciated, and enjoy coming to work. If that is not the case, they are unlikely to speak positively about you. Then, start sharing their stories on social media, a day in the life video, a blog post, or a best-practices story. Let your QA Manager explain how they perform daily HACCP checks, or your food technologist share how they develop new clean-label products. This brings vacancies to life, instead of reading a plain job description, candidates get to see potential colleagues, the work environment, and the role in action.

For even greater impact, encourage employees to share their stories on their personal social media accounts, such as LinkedIn. This expands your reach into new but relevant networks. Bonus tip: launch a referral programme to encourage employees to actively recruit within their own networks. If someone is hired thanks to an employee referral, offer a reward to make it worthwhile.

Staff shortages in the food industry are a serious challenge for many organisations. By investing in visibility, being a great employer, and using a personal recruitment strategy, you can both attract and retain talent.

At Green People Recruitment, we apply this approach every day to fill our clients’ vacancies in the food industry. Curious how we can support you with recruitment in the food industry? Feel free to get in touch with us.