UK strawberry sector hit by staff shortages

The British strawberry industry is in a jam, hit by a shortage of seasonal labourers for picking the fruit and the fear that much of the crop will be left to rot on their stems.

After weeks of uninterrupted sunshine the season is in full swing in the so-called Garden of England, but the shortage of seasonal labourers is being worsened by Brexit.

“We will end up with a problem,” said Alastair Brooks, who runs a 60ha farm near the town of Faversham in Kent.

“The recruitment agencies that we use for recruiting are saying that they are not going to be able to fill any vacancy after August,” he said.

His operation produces about 1,200 tonnes of strawberries and 400 tonnes of raspberries from April to November.

“There’s definitely a tightening of the labour market,” said Brooks, who employs 20 permanent and 180 seasonal workers. “If you go back to last year, there were four or five applicants for every job, and this year we have to chase people. We will see fruits left, not only in this farm, but across the country.”

A recent study by British Summer Fruits, the biggest industry body, found three out of five soft-fruit growers are struggling to recruit the 30,000 seasonal staff needed.

About 95% of the workers come from Eastern Europe. “At the moment berry farms are typically between 10% and 15% short of people,” its chairman Nick Marston said.

Soft-fruit production in Britain has grown over the past 20 years by 131%, largely as a result of an increase in homegrown strawberries. The industry is worth more than £1.2bn.

The staff shortage is not restricted to fruits, with the entire horticultural sector buffeted by Brexit and improvements in labour markets in Eastern Europe.

As unemployment has fallen in Bulgaria and Romania, the number of people applying to work in England’s fields has dropped, with Britain’s impending departure from the EU now amplifying the trend. It has led to uncertainty over future immigration rules, while fears of encountering xenophobia and a weakened British currency — giving less money to send home — have also deterred arrivals.

Stephanie Maurel, CEO of recruitment agency Concordia, said it has “really struggled” to find staff, starting from 2017.

She said the company usually brought over about 10,000 seasonal workers annually.