The National Farmers Union yesterday petitioned the Home Office to authorise a trial scheme that would allow farmers to hire seasonal workers from outside the EU.

In a meeting with Home Office officials, NFU’s horticulture board chair Ali Capper told immigration minister Robert Goodwill that there is an “Urgent need” for a trial Seasonal Agricultural Permit Scheme for non-EU workers in the 2017 season to compensate for “The shortfall in EU workers available to work on British farms.”

The union has asked the government to introduce a strategy to provide farmers with a continued stream of overseas labour, along the lines of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) which came to an end in 2014. The union has said its members are already finding it difficult to attract labour from overseas, given the fallout from the Brexit vote in June and the subsequent weakening of the pound.  

After the meeting, Capper said, “The industry has very specific needs for labour in agriculture and horticulture and the NFU is already in discussions with Government on this. Horticulture alone needs around 80,000 seasonal workers to pick and pack fruit, vegetables and plant crops across the country. This is expected to rise to 95,000 by 2021 based on today’s growth projections.

“Our message to the Home Office was simple: without workers to produce iconic British crops the industry will contract and imports will increase. This goes against everything the public tell us about wanting to support British farmers1 and wanting to see more British food on supermarket shelves.”

Capper added, “We’re already experiencing a shortfall in EU workers resulting from long-term declines and exacerbated by the referendum outcome. We urgently need a substantial trial of a Seasonal Agricultural Permit Scheme for non-EU workers in 2017. Without basic assurances from Government that this labour will be accessible in future, grower businesses face huge uncertainty and are delaying investment in British production.”