Workers f ly 3,500 miles to pick broccoli as Scots don’t want the job

Ukrainian graduate earns f ive times salary at home

IT may seem like a strange career choice – to travel 3,500 miles from Ukraine to pick broccoli on a farm in Scotland.

But for Yelyzaveta Lucchi, the journey from the former Soviet republic to Fife is definitely paying off.

The 22-year-old earns £400 a week in a job that, apparently, no Scots are willing to do.

Miss Lucchi is one of 2,500 non-EU workers invited to the UK as part of a pilot scheme set by the Government to ensure farms have enough seasonal staff.

With farmers struggling to recruit workers from within Scotland, the UK or the EU, the scheme involves workers being drafted in from former Soviet countries to tackle the shortages. Miss Lucchi arrived in Scotland with her boyfriend Bogdan, 21, in July and they have since been living and working on Debrae Farm in St Andrews, picking and packing broccoli and potatoes.

Paid £8.20 an hour, her weekly wage is more than Ukraine’s average monthly pay.

The political science graduate applied to work in Scotland after recruitment charity Concordia visited her university in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine.

She said: ‘We’re paid £8.20 an hour and work eight hours a day for six days, making about £393 a week, but can work overtime if there is work and we want to. A good salary in Ukraine is about £321 a month but is only enough to pay rent and bills.

‘I enjoy working outside, it’s not hard work. Sometimes it’s hard in the rain but if there’s too much we have a day off.’

Staff pay £50 a week to live in a caravan on the farm. Although a large number of seasonal pickers and packers are employed, Miss Lucchi said none are British, adding: ‘Maybe young people think it’s not cool when they can work inside instead. Perhaps it’s because it’s dirty work.’

Her ambition is to open her own gift shop in Ukraine. She said: ‘The most I’ve made in a single day is £104 and I hope to take home around £4,000.’

In recent years, farms have relied on extra staff from across the EU, particularly Eastern Europe. However, the weak pound and the approach of Brexit has seen a fall in the number of EU workers signing up.

The Home Office set up the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme to supply six-month visas to 2,500 non-EU migrant workers for the UK’s fruit and vegetable farms. Recruitment firms Pro-Force and Concordia have brought Russian, Moldovan and Ukrainian workers.

Stephanie Maurel, Concordia’s chief executive, said: ‘The pilot has gone incredibly well. Farmers are delighted with the productivity and motivation of their workers.

‘There remains a shortage of workers, though, and it would be great to see this pilot number increased in 2020 to 10,000.’

Rob McMorran, researcher in the rural policy centre at Scotland’s Rural College, said the staff shortage was a significant problem, adding: ‘Very few or no Scottish workers apply. Farmers say that if they can’t get workers from Eastern Europe or other international workers, it could lead to failed businesses.’

‘Perhaps it’s because it is dirty work’