‘Millions worth of crop to rot in fields due to lack of workers’

As much as £60 million of food has been wasted on farms because of labour shortage, according to the National Farmers’ Union, which found at least £22m of fruit and vegetables have already been wasted so far this year. 

A survey by the National Farmers Union found that four in 10 growers had suffered crop losses thanks to a lack of pickers, with worker shortages averaging 14 percent across the industry. In many cases, some staff did not turn up for work or quit early.  

The survey results show that £22m worth of fruit and vegetables has been wasted directly because of workforce shortages in the first half of 2022 alone. More than half of those questioned – 56 percent – said production had fallen by almost a fifth on average partly as a result of the worker shortages. Growers expect a further decrease in production – of 4.4 percent – in 2023. 

Tom Bradshaw, the union’s deputy president, said, “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. 

“At the same time, the prolonged dry weather and record temperatures have created a really challenging growing environment for our fruit and veg. 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 boss of one global food business said farmers were being “nannied” by the government, taking aim at caps on the number of foreign workers allowed into the country. 

Farmers have been struggling to find enough workers to pick crops post Brexit as well as due to Ukraine war. Brexit has reduced access to temporary workers coming in from the EU, while war in Ukraine has disrupted flow from a country that has provided a large proportion of the UK’s harvest workers in recent years. The workers prefer alternative work, including in warehouses and delivery, often offers higher pay and more job security.

Liz Truss, the Tory leadership candidate, has pledged to expand the scheme beyond its 2024 deadline, along with increasing the labour pool by an unspecified amount. 

Huffpost quoted a spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as saying that labour shortages are affecting countries around the world. 

“To support our farmers, we have already boosted the number of visas available through the seasonal workers route to 40,000. We have extended the scheme to include poultry and ornamental horticulture, we ran an automation review which will be published this summer and we are working to encourage people to take up jobs in the farming sector.”