Scots fruit farms ‘cannot operate without EU staff ’

Any “business as usual” approach on the freedom of movement for workers from the EU during a postbrexit transition period was firmly ruled out by Downing Street yesterday.

Moving to end speculation that full controls would “take some time” to set up and that the country would be open to European labour during a likely transition period, the UK government issued a statement stating that free movement would end when the UK left the EU. The announcement came only days after Scottish agriculture’s reliance on migrant labour was pressed home at a meeting with the UK government.

NFU Scotland representatives met ministers from the Department for Exiting the EU and the Scotland Office last week to highlight the integral role which EU workers play in the function of many farm businesses.

The need for any new immigration system to include at an early stage a seasonal agricultural workers scheme (SAWS) – allowing EU workers to be employed on Scottish farms for up to ten months in a year – was pressed home to the delegation.

“In the last 20 years, the Scottish soft fruit and vegetable industry has vastly 0 View of farming centred on TV’S The Good Life increased in scale, due to improvements in the marketplace and efficiency – assisted greatly by a ready supply of labour from the EU,” said union president Andrew Mccornick.

“There is not a single fruit farm in Scotland that could operate without access to overseas workers and there are many other agricultural businesses which rely on such employees.”

Stating that there were between 5,000 and 15,000 seasonal workers employed in the Scottish agricultural sector at any one time, Mccornick said that producers had already witnessed a drop in the numbers of EU workers working on Scottish farms this season – due to a range of factors linked to the drop in the value of their wages and EU nationals not feeling welcome in the UK.

“Without this supply of labour, crops are likely to be left unharvested and wasted. More food will have to be imported, driving up food prices,” he said. lon a lighter note, a survey released yesterday showed that fears over labour shortages might have an answer closer to home – with one in four of the general public looking kindly upon the idea of giving up their current day job and working on a farm.

However, their rosy view of country life could soon be discouraged as the survey also showed that their estimate of what a farmer earned was way over the figures actually being achieved.

The average member of the public put a farmer’s annual earnings at £47,000 – more than twice the actual average figure of just over £20,000– but around 10 per cent thought that a farmer earned over £75,000 a year.

The “Who’d be a Farmer Today?” report, carried out by the Prince’s Countryside Fund, was launched yesterday to mark the start of National Countryside Week and highlighted a disconnect between the positive perception and the tougher realities of the profession.

With the vast majority stating that their view of farming life was informed by television it might be no surprise that the public’s image stands someplace between Countryfile and re-runs of The Good Life.