‘It’s the hardest I’ve ever worked’
Some Britons try their hand as farm laborers in shortage
LONDON — If this were any other year, Ella Chandler, 19, would be playing cricket almost every day. Zak Oyrzynski, 23, would be looking for a job as a chef in London. Beth Blease, a 24-year-old personal trainer, would be helping her clients get into shape for the summer. Sam Richards, 32, would be behind a desk, working in sales.
But in this pandemic year, these Britons can be found in fields across the country, doing something they probably would not have imagined a few months ago: working as farm laborers, picking berries.
And pretty much enjoying it. “It’s been really fun, but it’s been tiring and hard work,” said Chandler, a professional cricket player for a team in New Zealand whose season was cut short.
On a recent day, she said, she picked almost 556 pounds of strawberries in about 51⁄2 hours. “It’s quite satisfying,” she said. She had seen on the news that pickers were needed on British farms because of an expected labor shortage and said she had decided to apply to work on one near her home in Surrey, a county southwest of London.
Besides the chance to make some — though not a lot of — money, the pickers said, it was a good way to meet and talk to people while the country was on lockdown, and prove to themselves they could do something unexpected.
“At least I did something,” said Oyrzynski, who picks strawberries, too, at the farm where Chandler works. “I didn’t sit here and do nothing and be a couch potato. I’m proud of myself for doing that.”
The job isn’t glamorous, and the work is hard.
A workday starts at 7 a.m., and the income can vary person by person.
“People say you can make a lot of money,” Oyrzynski said, “but it’s down to the picker.”
He said the workers at the farm were paid Britain’s minimum wage — 8.72 pounds ( just below $11) an hour — but could earn more based on how much fruit they picked.
Fruit picking in Britain is traditionally done by seasonal workers from Eastern Europe. Overall, 70,000 to 90,000 seasonal workers are needed to pick all the fruit and vegetables that grow in the country.
Because of travel restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus, many of those workers haven’t been able to make the trip, have been delayed or have chosen not to come.
By the time the pandemic hit
Europe, most of the crops had been planted.
As a result of the looming labor shortage, the government started a “Pick for Britain” campaign in April to attract British workers.
Prince Charles released a video in which he said the country needed “pickers who are stickers.”
Among those who signed up was Blease, a self-employed personal trainer who was unable to find work because of the lockdown. She works nine-hour shifts picking and packing strawberries and asparagus at Claremont Farm in northern England for minimum wage.
The work is rewarding beyond the pay, Blease said.
“We’re all meant to be outside and growing our own crops and living off the land, and I think we forget that sometimes,” she said.
When the coronavirus pandemic eases, she added, she hopes to own a farm herself where individuals suffering from anxiety, depression or eating disorders can do the same work.
Richards also works at Claremont Farm.
She lost her job as an account manager for a beer company during the pandemic.
“It’s the hardest I’ve ever worked, for the littlest money I’ve ever made, but it’s the happiest I’ve ever been — it’s bizarre,” Richards said.
“I think going forward I want to work in the outdoors,” she said. “I’ve just decided now that I don’t actually need that much to be happy. Being outdoors is more than enough.”
Farmers say they have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest in these jobs. They were afraid Britons would stay away from jobs usually performed by overseas workers.
For farmers, hiring Britons without any fruit-picking experience comes with challenges, and productivity needs to be high.
Mike Ashby knows this firsthand.
He normally hires seasonal workers from Romania to pick his farm’s asparagus, wheat, barley and more.
This year, not enough could make it, so he hired “eight English workers I wouldn’t normally have.”
“English workers need more training, and need a bit more ongoing training,” he said.
Time spent training is less time doing productive work.
“A new worker is 10 to 30% more expensive,” said Ali Capper, of the Horticulture and Potatoes Board for the National Farmers Union of England and Wales. “It takes about three to four weeks to get into a rhythm.”
“Experienced staff from Europe are skilled and quick,” said Charmay Prout, managing director of Flavourfresh, a grower of produce in northwest England that has 27 British workers on its crews, compared with 10 last year.
Some in the industry are looking at this summer as a warning sign.
The question of whether seasonal workers would continue coming to Britain each spring has been on the minds of farmers and growers since the country voted to leave the European Union in 2016. Rules governing travel from the European Union to Britain, due to take effect in 2021, have not been completed.
“This is what would’ve happened with Brexit without a proper plan. It’s exactly happening now,” said Deepak Ravindran, a co-founder of Oddbox, a company that delivers boxes of fresh produce to about 50,000 customers in London.
With lockdowns easing across the continent, and Britain’s announcement that seasonal workers wouldn’t be subject to a 14-day quarantine, farmers are hoping that more workers from Europe will still be able to come over for part of the season.
Despite the need, finding a job as a picker isn’t necessarily easy.
Some hopefuls are turning to Facebook groups where they crowdsource jobs as they wait for responses and news on potential picking work.
Jonty Stephens, an actor who lost his income when his national tour ended prematurely because of the lockdown, is one of the people waiting to see if he’s needed in the fields.
“It’s a worrying time,” he said. “We’re trying to do something proactive.”