Government silent as food rots across UK

Several farmers, wishing to remain nameless, said they had let unharvested crops worth up to £100,000 perish on their land, while spending tens of thousands more importing produce to meet orders.

Credit: © FARMERS GUARDIAN please contact 01772 799445.

They blame Government restrictions that have left a shortfall of seasonal migrant labour that has traditionally come from Eastern Europe.

Concordia, a leading organisation that specialises in bringing seasonal workers to Britain under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) said there were over 4,000 Bulgarians queuing up to come to Britain but that ‘an absurd’ Government policy meant work permits had long run out.

Christine Lumb, executive director of Concordia, said: “Many of our farmers are 20 per cent down on the labour they require and it is getting bleaker by the minute.”

One grower of spring onions confided he only had half the labour required. Another said he had resorted to employing Romanian workers without work permits.

Experts fear the labour shortage will intensify as the fruit and vegetable picking season peaks. One grower said the image of rotting food on British farms showed the Government up as ‘spineless’ in the face of global food shortages.

Crops policy manager for NFU Scotland, Peter Loggie, hit out at Ministers for remaining silent despite repeated calls to relax the restrictive immigration rules.

“This is not a question of long-term or permanent immigration. It is a scandal that the UK Government could allow food to rot in its own back yard, when it is in its gift to do something about it,” he said.

Shadow Agriculture Minister, Jim Paice, attacked the Government for failing to accept the importance of British farming when he spoke at the Cereals Event.

“The Government blindly adheres to a policy that views our farmers as dispensable and their produce unnecessary to ensure food security,” he said.

It is not just the horticultural sector that is suffering an acute shortage of labour. Many large-scale red meat processors are becoming desperately short of workers with the required skill levels.

Given that recruitment in the UK has for some time now proved fruitless, many plants already employ a significant percentage of east Europeans.But even that source is drying up and the search for skilled speed boners and other key staff is switching outside the EU.

Managing director of Dunbia’s Sawley (Lancashire) operations, Gavin Davidson, recently recruiting in Bulgaria, said: “I probably interviewed 60 and they are smashing people. But only eight had anything like the required skills and of those, five will still need some training.

"Consequently we are now looking further afield to the Ukraine and Brazil and hoping we can get the necessary Home Office clearance for permits. It really is getting desperate,” said Mr Davidson.

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