Local workers can solve berry crisis

The revelation that a Mearns fruit farmer has had to leave 100 tonnes of crop rotting in the fields because he cannot find pickers to harvest it has caused a mini-sensation.

Castleton, at Laurencekirk, has suffered a £350,000 hit due to the lack of migrant workers arriving on the farm this summer.

The loss of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme which, until 2013, saw eastern European casual workers converge on Tayside and Fife, has proved a body blow to the industry.

Anecdotally, the effect of the vote to leave the European Union has proved another obstacle to picking up foreign labour.

Local people are asking why the industry has come to rely so heavily on an imported seasonal workforce.

It was not long ago that the dreels would be filled with local people, eager to earn some extra cash to see them through the holiday season.

In an area with three universities and as many colleges, it would be expected there would be a battalion of students who could take to the fields.

The berry buses may no longer run but that is no reason for crops to remain unpicked.

An effort must be made to make the, admittedly backbreaking, work appealing to locals again to create local employment and solve the industry’s growing crisis.