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In Germany in 2002 there were some 19,000 small, neighbourhood butcher shops. They made and sold, among other things, that 鈥済reat emblem" of Germany鈥檚 national diet 鈥� sausages. At last count, in 2021, there were fewer than 11,000 shops left. The German butchers' trade association says there are 鈥渕assive problems鈥� finding trained staff and young people who want to learn from the bottom up.

In L枚rrach, in the south-west of Germany, the Chamber of Handcraft, is now looking overseas in order to preserve local culinary traditions. A group of apprentices from India has just started a three-year training programme at the local college and various shops in the vicinity. The decline of the butchers鈥� shop 鈥� and the threat to the sausage 鈥� mirrors a problem in many branches across the whole of Germany; in social care, in bakeries, in the building trade. People at the top of an ageing population are leaving the workforce at a higher rate than those entering at the bottom. The chamber of trade will likely be going back to India later this year to recruit for other industries.

Producer/presenter: Tim Mansel

(Photo by Tim Mansel)