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MORE THAN €71.2 million worth of food went to waste in Britain in the first half of the year for want of people to pick it, the UK’s National Farmers’ Union said today.
“It’s nothing short of a travesty that quality, nutritious food is being wasted at a time when families across the country are already struggling to make ends meet because of soaring living costs,” said NFU deputy president Tom Bradshaw.
According to a union study of farmers, 40% complained they had suffered losses owing to a shortage of pickers with some €26 million (£22 million) worth of fruit and vegetables alone lost from January to June.
Those questioned said they needed recruitment to rise around 14% and added 17% of pickers failed to turn up for work while a further 9% left before their contracts expired.
Brexit has contributed to the shortage by making it more difficult for farms to employ workers from EU member states, with freedom of movement ended following Britain’s exit from the bloc.
Ukrainians had temporarily partly filled the gap but since the Russian invasion of their country in February many have been stuck in their homeland.
To overcome the shortages, Britain has had to cast its net far further afield to recruit from countries including Indonesia, the Philippines and Uzbekistan as well as South Africa.
“At the same time, the prolonged dry weather and record temperatures have created a really challenging growing environment for our fruit and veg,” said Bradshaw.
“Every crop is valuable – to the farm business and to the people whose plates they fill. We simply can’t afford to be leaving food unpicked.”
The union says expanding Britain’s Seasonal Workers Scheme is vital to ensure the country does not see a repeat of what Bradshaw called this year’s “devastating level of food waste next year”.
Britain this year authorised some 38,000 visas for seasonal workers but the sector says it needs around double that at nearer 70,000.
To counter the problem the NFU wants to see the visa scheme expanded to permit a minimum five-year rolling scheme, pointing out horticultural growth is a plank of the government’s National Food Strategy.
“This survey has demonstrated just how crucial it is for fruit and veg growers to have access to the workforce they need,” said Bradshaw.
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Really feeling the benefits of brexit now
@Rui Firmino: it would be much easier to pick straight bananas.
@John Mulligan: What! Where can I get them?
Another glorious result of Brexit. Time to increase the pay for the staff required and UK citizens may take up the roles. That will however lead to yet another increase in the cost of production and an increase in food prices which the consumer will foot the bill for. So much winning with Brexit.
@Nick: instead of going to Rwanda you now go to the fields
@Nick: you could pay the unemployable ten times as much, but they still wouldn’t be capable of doing a day’s farm work.
@Jonny Parkinson: get the unemployed out of bed
@John Mulligan: I’d prefer to see Jacob Rees-Mogg and some other hedge fund managers do it and see how they like real work.
No doubt a certain thing starting with the letter B is contributing to this aswell. There’s that old saying ‘be careful what you wish for’. Apart from the disgrace of all the food going to waste, I can’t say I’m sorry for them to be honest :)
@Declan Moran: Boris?
They’re reaping what they sow!
@darren: not their crops!
Brexit means Brexit. Even if it means food goes rotten and we can’t get medics to staff our hospitals. Jesus wept.
@Elrond Rivendell: And how appropriate of you to include Jesus in the equation, since Brexit has become a religion. To the point where its proponents will defend hiring – instead of the folks from the EU who understandably don’t want to come over anymore – those from Indonesia, the Philippines, Uzbekistan and South Africa as the article mentions, “cos it proves we ain’t racist innit”.
They would get workers if they paid enough.
It’s what the majority came out in their droves to vote for and they couldn’t be persuaded otherwise. Let’s get Brexit done, they said and keen the migrates out. Let them pick their own fruit now.
@Seamus Quaide: My mam was in Sheffield the day of the vote; she told me she saw a group of giggling young ladies come out of a polling station, and asked them what they voted. “Out of course, we’ve got enough of ‘m already”. Of whom, she asked. “Foreigners”, said one. “Brown folks”, said another. They had no idea what the vote was about, was her conclusion. “They’re just going to get more of them”, I said sarcastically.
Ah good ol brexit. Brexit means brexit!!!
Nigel ferrage……. where are you now …….. Will you pick a few berries please
@Jim Casey: not fit to pick his nose
Brexit is what Brexit does.
F…ing imigrants taking our jobs.
:)
The old red bus doesn’t look too clever now, does it?
@Geoff Scargill: There’ll probably never conceivably be a more cynical way for the Tories to blow Labour’s socks off at their own game. I remember seeing that slogan and thinking, no way that’ll fool the people. They’ll surely see through it. But it did, and they didn’t. The NHS was all Labour’s making, and Dominic Cummings deviously managed to turn it against them.
Blame everything but Brexit is the media narrative in the UK for the most part. There’s always another reason for the problem.
@Joshua Walsh: I wish Covid hadn’t happened, I wish Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine, and I wish China wouldn’t hassle Taiwan, chiefly because all of these have been rather a nuisance personally as well as in a wider sense, but also because all of these in the past, presence and future, will allow the British to continue blaming stuff other than Brexit, while in reality they ought to be blaming Brexit, but the world will likely continue to serve them with excuses other than Brexit for the foreseeable future.
@Joshua Walsh: Rule #1. Control contollables. Covid, Ukraine, Taiwan are not controllables. Brexit and the Protocol were and are. They shot themselves in the foot twice in the name of the laziest and most unintelligent form of thought……blind nationalism. They reap what they sow. Or not as it seems. All in the name of Brexit.
@Elrond Rivendell: Don’t forget racism… Big factor too
A shortage of labour or a shortage of labour willing to work for a pittance? Employers have not yet caught up to the fact that employees are ever more reluctant to be abused for profit.
@Lily Martin: migrants were getting £11.50 an hour but many had to be houses so there was a cost to that also for the employer. To meet demand post Brexit, vegetable and fruit growers around the UK are offering to pay pickers, packers, processors and drivers up to £20 an hour (£30 on a weekend). While workers will be offered more for their time, it’s expected this sharp rise will feed through to supermarket shelf prices.
No fruit- let them eat cake then? Oops.
Bring back slaves from the former colonies is not the answer then? Very hard to get good staff these days.
British people to lazy
@John Kavanagh: same here though- remember Keelings
@Jonathan O’Riordan:
Labour isn’t free.
Get the British out of bed.and of the dole.
Gotta love all that brexity goodness.
You make your bed,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Liz Truss has a solution for that. A red, white and blue solution. With sprinkles on top.
The titties are tough this time of year.
Those pesky foriegners!
If “families across the country are already struggling to make ends meet because of soaring living costs”, might I suggest getting jobs picking crops?
have your say