Up to £60m in UK crops left to rot owing to lack of workers, says NFU

32 comments
  1. Most farmers backed Brexit, they can take this up with their favoured party of government who over promised and downright lied in the face of clear evidence pointing to this very outcome. It would be a joke but we need the bloody food.

  2. This is why when people like Nigel Farage & Boris Johnson open their mouths and promise the world, you should do some research into what they are promising and if it is even possible.

    This is entirely on Tories/Brexiters.

  3. im sorry but if you want to attract workers, doesn’t offering higher pay work? particularly for unskilled work that requires no extensive education pipeline?

  4. > The NFU’s survey found less than 4% of seasonal workers come from the UK, as those permanently living here and seeking work often do not live close to farms and may find it difficult to move for seasonal work and live in temporary accommodation

    Sure, *that’s* why. Nothing to do with wages or working conditions or anything.

  5. Have the farmers stopped pretending that they often pay £30 per hour for vegetable pickers yet? Moreover, have the papers stopped printing that bullshit?

  6. This is what they voted for. Some have said even though they knew it was going to happen, they still wanted Brexit.

    Take it up with Nigel. (I should put that on a T-Shirt!)

  7. we sure showed them, huh?

    we sure kicked the immigrants out, so they couldn’t take our jobs, huh?

    /s

  8. if you have a lack of workers, you are clearly lacking in what you are offering as reward for their time.
    how much longer are companies going to scratch their heads as go. “well, no one wants to work”
    Everyone wants to work, what they want is adequate pay

  9. This is funny because apparently the farmers “can’t get the workers” – but where are the fucking jobs?

    I think this is less “people won’t work” and more “farmers won’t pay”.

  10. Not surprised.

    Farm work is brutal. Worked on my friend’s game farm for a bit in 2019 & it was rough. I’d need at least £15ph in order to do manual work from 7-5 everyday.

  11. They’re welcome to start advertising jobs, it’s just because they’re not willing to pay a fair wage?

  12. UK crop output is about 11bn. So this represents about 0.5% of output. Bit tired of farmers offering terrible working conditions then moaning about not being able to get workers. Let it rot.

  13. The migrant labour model is nearing the end of its shelf life anyway. As domestic economies grow in eastern EU member states the incentive to take on this work diminishes, especially if you can pick up work in a nearby eurozone country and not have a weak £ to € to deal with. The further afield you look, the more expensive the travel costs, to a point of it simply being uneconomic. Horticulture has seen big £££ and done very well from this supply of cheaper seasonal labour, what they did before this is where they’ll need to return to. There are 5 million EU citizens who have pre or settled status in the U.K., some businesses planned ahead and made sure their workers applied, however many didn’t – head in the sand stuff. I’ve not seen a shred of evidence to show crops rotting in fields or on trees solely as a result of labour shortages.

  14. Is 60M alot? I mean to me and you it is but when you compare it to the UK agriculture section it probably isn’t. It’s a waste anyway and I’m sure the drought has done worse….

  15. They said wages will increase to meet supply, I guess demand does not want to meet supply 🙁

  16. Looks like a wage issue to me. I would have much preferred to go work a farm like you can in Australia over retail if they didn’t pay and rely on slave wages in the UK

  17. The “answer” is in the article for gods sake.

    `Farmers have been struggling to find enough workers to pick crops amid high employment levels in the UK. Alternative work, including in warehouses and delivery, often offers higher pay and more job security. The struggle to find workers has led to pay increases and problems for businesses in hospitality, logistics and food production.`

  18. I‘m a student with some time to kill, where can I inquire about getting a job like this over a month?

  19. Have they considered paying people to work rather then just getting mirgrants over and paying them pennies

  20. Who knew Brexit and a racist hostile environment immigration policy would lead to such things?

    If only we knew and some experts had informed the general public.

  21. I asked a local farmer if i could come and work as a farm hand for a bit to gain some experience and possibly be taken on later on as a full time worker.

    The response i got was nothing short of “You’re not foreign and can’t be forced to work 60+ hours picking veg so no thanks”

    I offered to do general farm work, maintenance and even listed off current skills that could put his rotting combine back to work or even just fix old fences that need a small repair.

    Again the response was basically “Nah i just need someone to pick veg for £4 an hour cash under the table.”

    Maybe if the NFU go on to these farms and farmers and asked why don’t they recruit local kids for experience none of this would be an issue. My local college is an agriculture college. There’s hundreds of teens waiting to get a spot on a farm just cutting grass, feeding animals or laying fence posts etc… on an apprenticeship which means £100 a week pay for whatever hours which typically gets paid back to the farmer from the government with a little extra paperwork.

    This is nothing to do with Brexit but all on the farmers being too lazy to adjust to the lack of immigrant workers willing to work for less than minimum wage.

    All i just wanted was a little insight in to a farmers life and possible reference, and in return i would give my time to help them do every task around the farm either for free a few hours a week or full time for minimum wage.

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