Virus leads to farm labour shortage before Brexit
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(12 May 2020) The COVID-19
(12 May 2020) The COVID-19 pandemic has lead to a shortage of farm labour just months before the UK formally leaves the European Union at the end of December.
At Stocks Farm in Worcestershire, workers are busy tending hops plants - used in beer making - to grow up string supports.
It's an early season task that in normal times would be done by Polish workers.
But due to the coronavirus travel restrictions only four of the up to 16 expected migrants were able to make the journey.
It's the same story in farms throughout the UK. In response, the government has urged millions who have been furloughed or unemployed as a result of the pandemic to help with harvests this year.
Recruiters say the response has been enthusiastic but nowhere near to solving the problem.
Stocks Farm has been able to recruit locally for the short term: universities have closed so students have returned to their home towns and staff have been furloughed or lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. But it's not a long-term solution.
Politics student Freddie Grant returned home to Worcestershire from Newcastle University.
"It keeps me busy. Otherwise I would be stuck at home, so it is a good thing to do and get out there and help the beer industry during the coronavirus."
Window fitter Stephen Hodgkins is grateful for the employment.
"I couldn't do my job and I didn't want to claim unemployment benefit so I thought I'd come back to the fields which I did when I was 16 years old. And when this is over I will return back to my normal job."
The virus couldn't have struck at a worse time. Growers are deeply worried about harvests next year when the effects of Brexit kick in and the tens of thousands of Eastern European workers they have relied on no longer have the automatic right to come and work in the UK.
Now coronavirus travel restrictions have suddenly brought that prospect of critical labour shortage to the present and offers a taster of how Brexit will impact growers in a few months' time.
Ali Capper, the National Farmers' Union spokeswoman for horticulture, runs Stocks Farm with her husband Richard.
She is concerned not just about this year's August-September harvest when she normally would hire 70 pickers from Eastern Europe - many of whom have returned year after year - but also the long term effects of Brexit.
Although farmers are grateful to employ temporary British staff, growers say they are not a long term solution to the problem and that first world economies have always relied on part time migrant labour to pick crops.
"In order to have full time work you have to be prepared to follow that work around the country to different crops to different parts of the country and that really doesn't suit people who have to pay rent or a mortgage," said Capper.
She is calling for clarity from the British government about its immigration plans after 31 December when the current 11-month Brexit transition period ends and freedom of movement for EU citizens to Britain will likely end.
Without this Capper says farmers will reduce the amount of crops they grow rather than seeing them rot in the fields.
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At Stocks Farm in Worcestershire, workers are busy tending hops plants - used in beer making - to grow up string supports.
It's an early season task that in normal times would be done by Polish workers.
But due to the coronavirus travel restrictions only four of the up to 16 expected migrants were able to make the journey.
It's the same story in farms throughout the UK. In response, the government has urged millions who have been furloughed or unemployed as a result of the pandemic to help with harvests this year.
Recruiters say the response has been enthusiastic but nowhere near to solving the problem.
Stocks Farm has been able to recruit locally for the short term: universities have closed so students have returned to their home towns and staff have been furloughed or lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. But it's not a long-term solution.
Politics student Freddie Grant returned home to Worcestershire from Newcastle University.
"It keeps me busy. Otherwise I would be stuck at home, so it is a good thing to do and get out there and help the beer industry during the coronavirus."
Window fitter Stephen Hodgkins is grateful for the employment.
"I couldn't do my job and I didn't want to claim unemployment benefit so I thought I'd come back to the fields which I did when I was 16 years old. And when this is over I will return back to my normal job."
The virus couldn't have struck at a worse time. Growers are deeply worried about harvests next year when the effects of Brexit kick in and the tens of thousands of Eastern European workers they have relied on no longer have the automatic right to come and work in the UK.
Now coronavirus travel restrictions have suddenly brought that prospect of critical labour shortage to the present and offers a taster of how Brexit will impact growers in a few months' time.
Ali Capper, the National Farmers' Union spokeswoman for horticulture, runs Stocks Farm with her husband Richard.
She is concerned not just about this year's August-September harvest when she normally would hire 70 pickers from Eastern Europe - many of whom have returned year after year - but also the long term effects of Brexit.
Although farmers are grateful to employ temporary British staff, growers say they are not a long term solution to the problem and that first world economies have always relied on part time migrant labour to pick crops.
"In order to have full time work you have to be prepared to follow that work around the country to different crops to different parts of the country and that really doesn't suit people who have to pay rent or a mortgage," said Capper.
She is calling for clarity from the British government about its immigration plans after 31 December when the current 11-month Brexit transition period ends and freedom of movement for EU citizens to Britain will likely end.
Without this Capper says farmers will reduce the amount of crops they grow rather than seeing them rot in the fields.
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