UK: 60 million pounds of fruit and vegetables lost due to lack of workers to harvest them

More than 60 million pounds (70 million euros) of fruit and vegetables were lost in the United Kingdom in the first half of the year due to a lack of workers to pick them, according to an estimate by the British agricultural union NFU (National Farmers’ Union). ). These losses of “quality, nutritious food” are even more difficult to collect “at a time when families across the country are already struggling to make ends meet due to rising costs of living,” said Tom Bradshaw, vice president of the NFU in a statement Monday.

According to the survey carried out by the union, 40% of the farmers surveyed suffered harvest losses due to labor shortages estimated at 14% of the needs. 17% of hired workers never showed up, while 9% left before the end of their contract. If British farms are fighting so hard to recruit, it is in particular because hiring European workers, once free to come and go, has been made so difficult by Brexit.

Ukrainian workers

And Ukrainian workers, who in recent years have made up the vast majority of seasonal workers in the country, are largely trapped at home by war. As a result, British operators are calling on workers from further afield, Uzbekistan, the Philippines, Indonesia or even South Africa to take on tough jobs that they can’t find candidates for locally.

“At the same time, the ongoing drought and record high temperatures have created a really difficult environment for our fruits and vegetables to grow in,” adds Tom Bradshaw, making it even more crucial to be able to harvest the food produced. To deal with this situation, the NFU calls in particular on the government to increase the number of visas available to meet the needs of the sector in order to avoid “this disastrous level of food waste next year”.

According to the union, nearly two-thirds of recruits in the first half of the year were hired through the temporary worker visa regime, one-third of whom had arrived earlier. For this year, some 38,000 temporary worker visas have been authorized and the sector is requesting almost twice as many, up to 70,000.