Thousands of Britons have answered the call for work on the country’s fruit and vegetable farms this summer as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps eastern European workers away, but it might still not be enough to secure the harvest.
The National Farmers Union said that 70,000 to 80,000 jobs need to be filled and the clock is ticking.
Already asparagus and cucumbers are being picked, next month it is strawberries, raspberries and spring onions, then in June peas and beans.
A shortage of labor could mean millions of tonnes of fruit and vegetables are left unpicked in British fields or composted.
For a decade the industry has been almost totally reliant on seasonal migrant workers from EU member states Romania and Bulgaria taking short-term jobs that British workers do not want to do.
Even before the lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed by governments across Europe to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, British farmers were having to adapt to tougher labor conditions following the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
While the health emergency has greatly exacerbated the supply of foreign workers, it has, also created a giant labor pool in Britain, as workers have been laid off or furloughed, students released months before their normal summer holidays and low-risk prisoners freed from jails.
Recruitment agencies have seen a surge in interest, although some farmers remain wary based on their previous experience with British workers.
“Whenever we’ve had locals come they last a couple of days or a week,” said Alex Myatt from her farm in Kent, southeast England. “In three years we haven’t had one local person last a season.”
Myatt said that her family-owned fruit farm had received more than 700 applications for seasonal labor, including from chefs, construction workers and film and theater workers.
The farm typically employs 180 people at the peak of the season and is still hopeful that some Romanian workers will return, with a few flights starting to arrive in the UK.
Stephanie Maurel, chief executive of Concordia, a labor agency charity that is one of Britain’s biggest recruiters of agricultural workers, said that the response to its “Feed the Nation” campaign had been “phenomenal” to date, with applicants from every corner of the country and every industry.
However, although vacancies for this month have been filled, Maurel said that she anticipates a shortage.
“As the harvesting season begins for the vast majority of farms and crops from May onwards, we still have thousands of roles available for people who are in need of a job,” she said.
About 36,000 people have registered interest and more than 6,000 have conducted a video interview, but over the past 10 days, while nearly 900 people have been offered jobs, only 112 have signed contracts, she said.
Country Land and Business Association president Mark Bridgeman said that British workers would eventually return to their normal jobs once the lockdown eases.
“As things start being unlocked that will be the challenge,” Bridgeman said.
For those Britons who do take a job, sticking with it, day-in, day-out, through the harvest season will be hard graft.
“Yesterday was very tough, the backs of your legs are aching, the bottom of your back, but after a couple of weeks you get used to it, your legs stretch,” said Craig O’Brien, a bricklayer before the lockdown who has just started picking asparagus at David Hartnoll’s farm in Devon, southwest England.
“I’ve got three children so I need to be working,” O’Brien said, adding that while he has picked before, it is not a job for everyone.
“You’ve really got it in you or you haven’t,” he said.
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