Brexit Britain’s fruit and vegetable sector is understandably concerned for its future. The loss of EU farming subsidies and a possible rise in food prices will squeeze British producers, but for many in the industry the biggest worry is recruitment. Britain’s decision to leave the EU has cast serious doubt over growers’ ability to source the eastern European seasonal workers that keep the industry running.
Restrictions to the free movement of workers have the potential to cut off growers from their labour supply and cause crop losses. Supermarkets and wholesalers would then simply turn to other markets.
Eager to ensure this doesn’t happen, growers and recruiters have already joined the NFU in lobbying the Home Office for visa-restricted access to labour from not just Europe, but anywhere in the world. The body has also called on the government to establish a student agricultural workers’ scheme, open to students internationally.
The UK already imports around 90 per cent of its fruit and around 50 per cent of its vegetables, but this trade imbalance would only widen in the event of a labour shortage. British farmers growing the most labour-intensive crops would naturally be hardest hit, leaving growers of soft fruit (particularly strawberries), vegetables (especially Brussels sprouts, courgettes, cauliflower and broccoli) and apples most vulnerable.
“If retailers can’t get the product they need from the UK, they will buy it elsewhere,” says John Hardman, director of Hops Labour Solutions, a recruitment agency based in Kenilworth in the West Midlands. He is pushing for the reintroduction of the government’s scrapped Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Scheme “as soon as humanly possible”.
Like its competitors, Hops sources the overwhelming majority of its seasonal workers from within the EU, but has virtually no British pickers to speak of. “There’s no appetite in the UK workforce to pick fruit and veg,” according to Hardman. Hops tried to encourage more British workers to join the industry through a welfare-to-work scheme with the Department for Work and Pensions two and a half years ago, but this had “very limited success” and was “of massive cost to the UK taxpayer,” he says.
Hardman points out he was worried about the industry’s ability to source labour regardless of the referendum result, because of a reported decline in the quality of labour in recent years. But he believes Brexit will exacerbate this situation.
Other recruiters such as Guy Moreton, director at MorePeople, are more hopeful. Moreton wanted Britain to remain in the EU, but remains convinced that, regardless of whether or not free movement is restricted, some kind of agreement will be reached to continue the supply of temporary foreign labour.
But Hardman warns that growers must continue to look after their staff properly if they want to hang on to their seasonal workers. The depreciation in the pound is making the UK less attractive for migrant workers, but it’s not all about wages, he adds. “Growers and suppliers need to make sure their working conditions, accommodation and amenities are better than their competitors to attract better workers,” he says.
AG Recruitment and Management, which recruits seasonal labourers directly from Romania and Bulgaria, is also optimistic. And company director Doug Amesz believes Brexit may in fact boost his business. If the government introduces new immigration controls – Theresa May has backed the idea of limiting free movement to those that have already secured a job in the UK – Amesz predicts that eastern European workers will become more reliant on his company to supply them with labour that they would not otherwise get.
One Romanian worker that Amesz placed this summer was first-time picker Cosmin Niculae, who harvests salad for LJ Betts in Kent. Niculae remains upbeat about his work opportunities in the UK and hopes to return for the next two picking seasons and beyond. “I’ve been here for almost three months and it already feels like home. The people are kind and the working conditions are perfect,” he says.
But already, reports have begun to surface that other eastern European labourers are being made to feel unwelcome – not by their employers but by the general public. Salad giant G’s in Cambridgeshire reports that its workers are now unsure if they are welcome because of comments they’re getting in shops and on the street – particularly if they are not speaking English. Making workers feel wanted will be a key part of any strategy to ensure they come back.
OPINION: Brexit shouldn't scare off job applicants
Sydoni Dixon, managing director, Fresh Talent Recruitment
It has certainly been a candidate-short market during the last few months, albeit that with the seasonality of our sector there are always peaks and troughs of activity. I have been learning that a lot of the decisions and reluctance to jump ship are caused by the unreliability of the economy following our vote to leave the EU. The sceptic in me believes that perhaps this is more about scaremongering tactics still being used on a daily basis, with the Brexit debate manipulated in terms of imminent redundancies.
More than 90 per cent of the UK economy is not involved in trade with the EU, and with small and medium-sized firms freed from EU regulation, there could be a jobs boom. I have certainly seen a surge in job opportunities and a lot of these are newly-created positions. It seems ironic that people would be worried about redundancies when the companies themselves are not feeling the hit.
I have always been a believer of not going along in life asking ‘what if?’ We have one life and we should live it courageously, but it seems to me at the moment that perhaps I am the only one who is thinking like this. Has Brexit eaten all the candidates?
I think it is important to look at the fact that the UK, as a result of leaving the EU, would be free to establish bilateral trade agreements with fast-growing export markets such as Brazil, China, Singapore, India and even Russia. Imported food from non-EU countries could get cheaper, which would be a massive advantage for the fresh produce sector.
Our industry is such an exciting one, with countless amounts of opportunities and autonomy, and I do not believe that we should allow the uncertainty of today to dominate our future. Everyone has to continue to eat, after all.
