Desperate farmers offer free f lights to foreign fruit pickers

THEY used to come in their thousands to work in Scotland’s fields, picking fruit throughout the summer.

Now workers from Eastern Europe are being offered flights and cash loans by desperate farmers trying to tackle a labour shortage.

They are finding it increasingly difficult to attract summer strawberry and raspberry pickers from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania.

That means crops could be left to rot in the fields and customers will face price rises.

Growers warn that failing to fix the labour crisis could devastate the £100million-a-year Scottish soft fruit industry, which is largely based in Tayside and Fife.

Tim Stockwell, who runs a farm near Crail in Fife, says he is about 10 to 15 per cent short of the 300-strong team needed this year for picking strawberries and raspberries throughout the summer.

He added: ‘I went over to Bulgaria to help recruit people, to do a presentation for our farms.

‘That did help but it looks like we’re still going to be short. It’s the first time I’ve been, but I do know of other farms going over there.

‘Last year we helped with flights and loans for some who then paid us back. It is a system that is used in other countries and we may use it. The agents we use year to year are struggling to fill the places.’

Mr Stockwell said they had paid for the workers’ flights – which can cost up to £250 between Scotland and Bulgaria – and loaned them money last year ‘in desperation to get people on the farm rather than losing crop’.

He said: ‘It’s easy to blame Brexit and I think that has undoubtedly made the situation worse, but also we are finding that a lot of Bulgarian and Romanian people don’t want to travel as much as they used to – they are getting better jobs in their own country.

‘We don’t find any Polish come to us, very few. So it’s looking for a new pool of people to draw from.’

William Houston, general manager of Angus Growers, a group of 18 producers mainly in Angus, Perthshire and Fife, said part of the problem was the post-Brexit reputation of the UK.

He said Eastern European tabloid newspapers were ‘building up hysteria about what a terrible place Britain has become’.

Mr Houston added: ‘If your family at home is asking you “what do you think you are doing coming to a country like this and look at what the Press is saying”, it adds to the pressure.’

Growers are demanding the revival of the UK Government’s seasonal agricultural workers’ scheme (SAWS), which was dropped in 2013 by then Home Secretary Theresa May.

The scheme would allow non-EU workers to come to Britain temporarily for farming work.

Stephen Gethins, Nationalist MP for North East Fife, said the uncertainty of Brexit was ‘having a huge impact on local farms’ and a new seasonal workers scheme was vital to ‘ensure our food is not being left to rot in the fields’.

Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes said the migration advisory committee, which is reviewing the UK’s labour requirements, was looking at a possible revival of SAWS.

She added: ‘I am looking into this issue very closely indeed.’

‘We’re still going to be short’