Fruit Pickers

[Bee]

British fruit and veg growers are facing a huge labour crisis because of Brexit.
Fewer seasonal workers from countries like Poland, Romania and Bulgaria are coming to the UK because of the uncertainty created by our exit from the European Union and because the weakened sterling has made working in the UK less attractive financially. Some also worry the UK has become less welcoming to foreigners since Brexit.
In May alone, there were more than 1,500 unfilled vacancies on British farms, according to the National Farmers Union.
Growers say the government needs to take urgent action to ensure foreign seasonal workers keep coming to the UK. Otherwise, prices on fruit like strawberries will soar.
Seasonal workers from Europe are so important because fruit and veg is a very labour intensive sector – and because it’s nigh-on impossible to find Brits willing to do the job.
At least that’s what growers claim.
So why exactly is it so hard to hire Brits for farm jobs? We look at the key factors - and challenge a few myths.


https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/people/people-news/why-are-so-few-brits-prepared-to-pick-fruit/554452.article

[zoony]

Part of your answer Bee lies in the appalling pay and conditions many of these folk are forced to live in and tolerate.
Producers, politicians and people have known about this since at least last year, bit late to start yelling about it now.

[GrannyMac]

Ive read the article, and I saw some interviews on a strawberry farm on TV.  I went raspberry picking as a teenager in Scotland (where the best rasps are grown), great pocket money for a few weeks. We got picked up in the morning by bus, in our old clothes and with sandwiches and a drink in our bag, off we went for a days hard work.  Often mums and children went, especially if dad wasn't well paid.

Most family units then consisted of dad working, and mum being at home or making 'pin money' when she could. So a few weeks at 'the berries' made a difference to the family coffers.   Nowadays, it's not worth coming off benefits for seasonal work; it's physical work; it doesn't pay much above min wage. I also picked potatoes for a couple of weeks, now that was hard going.

Ten years or so ago, my niece, who worked for a veg grower, again in Scotland, was recruiting from Poland due to a lack of local interest. 

[fortyone]

Growers say the government needs to take urgent action to ensure foreign seasonal workers keep coming to the UK. Otherwise, prices on fruit like strawberries will soar.

I fail to see just what they expect the government to do. Send out press gangs?

The article suggests that the fall in value of the pound makes the UK less attractive. Maybe they should pay more. Who knows if they did it's just possible some UK citizens might find it economically viable to take on some of these jobs rather than the dole.


I doubt cheap imported labour leads to cheaper fruit as imported fruit is often cheaper than UK produce. All cheap imported labour leads to is more locals on the dole and  more money in the growers pockets or more in gangmasters pockets.

[Maddie Malone]

What about all those in prison .
There accommodation  is already paid for .
They could work their sentences out on fruit farms

[sueboo]

We visited a fruit farm in Lincolnshire some years ago.  The owner paid his pickers good money and provided accommodation for them if needed.  He said the majority of his workers were from overseas because he found that British people didn't like doing it because it was early starts and hard work!!  He'd lost count of the times locals had only managed one days work complaining they were worn out. 


I remember doing apple picking for a season once, loved it apart from all the wasp stings.

[peterpensioner]

Poland joined the EU in 2004 - I have to ask the question - how did the farmers manage before 2004??

[john mounsey]

Fruit picking is seasonal and temporary not permanent.

[sueboo]

A lot of students used to do this kind of work but again maybe too much like hard work for them these days?

[Undercover Pensioner]

Yes,  let's attack the students shall we.  After all they are hardly likely to give you a run for your prejudice (opinion not based on fact) are they.

Our young people - the ones who are currently students, work part-time all the way through term-time and then full time in the holidays.  Their friends do too.  They cannot afford to do otherwise.  Unfortunately, they and the majority of other young people are not available for fruit-picking and why, even if they were, would they choose the conditions that zoony has described so well when they could do something better.  The Tories keep telling us we have the highest level of employment for years so where are all the unemployed who would be able to do these jobs?

[sarahbilly 1]

brexit will not stop others coming from abroad to work, our economy would plummet without foreign labour. its said we have 3 million eu workers and maybe 2/3 million from outside the eu, the gov boast that we only have 1.5/ 2 million who could be available for work. for a number of reasons these unemployment figures would not be expected to reduce much lower, so where do we get the min of 3million workers we require from?

[Phil]

Poland joined the EU in 2004 - I have to ask the question - how did the farmers manage before 2004??

Thank god someone else has had the wit to ask the question I must have asked a 100 times on the forum.

Hope you get an explanation because, to date, I haven't.

Unless people fully understand landwork, they'll just accept the figures given in the article which are totally misleading.

There will be some small one-man-band growers who employ direct labour & pay £10 per hour but all the 'big boys' with farms sites stretching from Lincolnshire down to the tip of Cornwall use contract labour.

Much of the contracting has been taken over by Eastern Europeans who can undercut UK gangmasters.

The Eastern Europeans do not abide by any of our rules & there will be thousands of workers living 30 to a house & earning £2 per hour.

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/people/people-news/why-are-so-few-brits-prepared-to-pick-fruit/554452.article

[zoony]

What about all those in prison .
There accommodation  is already paid for .
They could work their sentences out on fruit farms

Maddie. Their sentence is to loss of liberty. It would be contrary to Law to make forced labour part of that. Though I kind of agree.

[Akbuk]

I lived in Skegness for five years in the 70s. This is how it worked.
Locals worked the land & the seafront, they done it from their own homes. Im afraid if people think that field workers & seafront working is all done above board then sorry to be the bearer of bad news, its not like that nor has it ever been.
I ask people this. Why would land owners who are maybe paying the people below the minimum wage be different from how a lot of industries are now operating? The building industry is a prime example.
Cheap labour.

[Ashy]

With all due respect it doesn't have to be forced labour, it can be voluntary, and paid. There may be others who can be brought in from our own people, such as the youth.