UK: Agricultural sector facing considerable difficulties in recruiting and retaining labour

The British Growers Association Chief Executive, Jack Ward, has welcomed the publication of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report ‘Feeding the nation: labour constraints’. Jack said: “It is refreshing to see an independent report that more accurately reflects the needs of fresh produce and other industries, and acknowledges the continuing need for overseas labour, whether on a permanent or seasonal basis.

“We will look forward to continuing the debate on this critical issue after the General Election in the light of this report.”

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Report
Throughout 2016 and early 2017 employers in the agriculture and horticulture sectors have reported difficulties with recruiting sufficient labour to harvest and process their produce. The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) warned that failure to tackle the problem would lead to “food rotting in the fields”.

Although these difficulties have existed for some time, concerns about the impact of the UK exiting the European Union focused attention on the dependence of the sectors on migrant workers and the potential effect on exiting the EU on the sectors’ access to labour.

In early 2017, we took oral evidence from four panels of witnesses to inquire into whether there was a shortage of labour in the agriculture and horticulture sectors, what the short and long-term causes of any shortages were, and what policies the Government should adopt in the short and medium-term to prevent any such future shortages. Our final oral evidence session was held on 15 March 2017 with George Eustice MP, Minister of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Robert Goodwill MP, Minister of State for Immigration at the Home Office. We thank all of those who submitted written or oral evidence to this inquiry.

The calling of an early General Election has meant that we have not been able to prepare a detailed report on all of the issues raised. This Report instead provides a brief comment on the key issues identified. All of the evidence received as part of this inquiry is reported on our website and we are confident that the matters raised will be of interest to our successor Committee.