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Faversham, England – The British strawberry industry is overweight, hit by a shortage of seasonal workers for picking fruit and fear that much of the crop will rot on their stems .
The season is in full swing in the so-called Garden of England, but the shortage of seasonal workers is compounded by the Brexit
"We are going to end up with a problem," said Alastair Brooks, who runs a farm near the town of Faversham, Kent
"The recruitment agencies we use for recruitment say that they will not be able to fill a vacancy after August", he says. "There is definitely a tightening of the labor market," said Brooks, who employs 20 permanent and 180 seasonal workers. "If you go back to last year, there were four or five candidates for each job, and this year we have to hunt people, we will see fruits not only in this farm, but across the country."
A recent study by British Summer Fruits, the largest industry organization, found that three out of five fruit producers are struggling to recruit the required 30,000 seasonal employees.
About 95% of workers come from Eastern Europe. "At the moment, berry farms are generally between 10% and 15% less than people," said its president Nick Marston
The production of nuts in Britain has increased by 131% this year. last years. an increase in strawberries grown locally. The shortage of staff is not limited to fruits, the whole horticultural sector being shaken by Brexit and the improvement of labor markets in Eastern Europe
Unemployment having fallen in Bulgaria and Romania. , the number of people applying to work in the English fields has dropped, with the imminent departure of the EU EU now boosting the trend. Fears of meeting xenophobia and a weakened British currency – giving less money to send home – also deterred arrivals.
Stephanie Maurel, CEO of Concordia Recruitment Agency, said: "struggled to find staff, starting in 2017.
She said that the company usually brought about 10,000 workers seasonal each year
AFP
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