Keelings Fruits says it has brought a number of workers to Ireland to pick strawberries.

The Irish firm says the workers arrived on a chartered Ryanair flight from Bulgaria on Monday.

Keelings says without these seasonal workers it would "be impossible to bring fresh Irish strawberries to the Irish market."

"We understand the concern in the current environment regarding both social distancing and local employment.

"We want to assure the public that we are doing all we can to help support local employment at this time and to ensure the safety of all our workers."

The company says it is also recruiting local workers to pick crops on its farm, along with other roles in the business.

In a statement, it says: "It is essential that we have adequate staffing on the farm to pick crops quickly as they ripen, or we risk shortages in the market.

"Across our entire business we have also worked tirelessly to implement the HSE and Government guidelines to ensure we are protecting the health of all of our people.

"This includes thorough and repeated COVID-19 safety coaching and instruction to follow all the HSE guidelines."

It says this includes 14 days of restricted movement for any new arrivals in the country, prior to starting work.

Main image: @keelingsfruits/Twitter