For the last few years, the NFU has been gathering evidence and highlighting the very real challenges we have in securing enough seasonal and permanent labour to keep our businesses going. And those efforts were redoubled when Brexit was confirmed, with genuine concerns that access to labour would be severely restricted post-Brexit, and that workers would be reluctant to come to the UK pre-Brexit.
Our first set of results from 2017 have now been published and have demonstrated that those fears were very real. In fact, it shows that the number of seasonal workers coming to work on British farms has dropped 17%, leaving some farms critically short of people to harvest fruit and veg.
Further surveys by the BBC and British Summer Fruits have shown that the situation is worsening, with 78% of respondents saying recruitment had been more difficult than last year and more than half fearing they would not have enough migrant workers to harvest their crops.
With this growing weight of evidence, the NFU has re-emphasised its call on the Government and newly appointed Defra Secretary of State Michael Gove to provide reassurances to growers that there will be clarity on how farms will access a reliable and competence workforce, both today and post-Brexit. We’re also calling for clarity on the new rules for EU migrants living and working in the UK well before free movement ends in 2019. And we want the Home Office to instruct the Migration Advisory Committee to undertake a full impact assessment of new immigration system options and their suitability for agriculture and horticulture.
I believe the general public understands this issue. They know that foreign workers are necessary to pick and pack fruit and veg and that without them prices will rise. I would like to think the government finally understands it too, but time is running out and we need to see measures put in place sooner rather than later.
As we stand today, the cliff edge certainly seems to be getting a lot closer.