Farmers left with shortage of fruit pickers after Brexit vote The Brexit vote has deterred large numbers of seasonal fruit and vegetable pickers from the UK, according to members of […]

The Brexit vote has deterred large numbers of seasonal fruit and vegetable pickers from the UK, according to members of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU).

Some farms are facing a 10 per cent shortfall in labour, the group told immigration minister Robert Goodwill, leaving the industry in a labour crisis.

As well as Britain’s vote to leave the EU, which was strong in areas such as the East of England with a large presence of seasonal migrant agricultural workers, the fall in sterling after the vote has made the work less lucrative.

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Around 60,000 workers, mainly from Eastern Europe, come to UK farms every summer to help with seasonal harvests.

Non-EU migrants

The Government is understood to be considering changing rules to allow farmers to hire non-EU migrant workers. The NFU has called for a full trial of the scheme so farmers can be ready for the next recruitment season.

The NFU has warned that prices could rise if British production drops and shops are forced to rely on more imports. In September, according to the farming group’s figures, farms had 10 per cent fewer seasonal workers than they wanted.

Just 7.2 per cent were experienced workers who had returned from previous years – a figure that is down from around 60 per cent.

Farmers are also preparing for an end to direct subsidies from the EU as a result of the EU referendum vote.

Ali Capper, the NFU’s horticulture board chairwoman, warned in July that a post-Brexit shortage of labour could lead to the disappearance of British strawberries.

A shortage of workers in 2007-2008 led to some fruit being left unharvested by farmers.

“I don’t think this time we will see crops left to rot. Farmers will make a decision not to grow them or to move,” said Ms Capper.

The British fruit-growing industry has undergone a transformation in the past decade. Where most supermarket fruit was foreign-grown 10 to 15 years ago, now all berries from May to October are British, according to British Summer Fruits, the industry body.

British workers don’t want to pick fruit

“No British person wants a seasonal job working in the fields,” John Shropshire, the chairman of G’s, which employs around 2,500 seasonal workers, told the Guardian.

“The Government has to make a decision: either we bring the people to the work or we take the work to the people.”

A spokesman for the Home Office said: “The UK needs a fair and controlled immigration policy and that is what this government will deliver.”