The British voting last June to leave the European Union (EU) has been identified by the country's strawberry sector as a risk, given that it is largely dependent on foreign workers, said Bloomberg.
For instance, Hugh Lowe Farms, located in Kent, employs workers from Central and Eastern Europe to produce 28 tonnes of strawberries every summer. And it's not the only one doing this.
"We really rely on citizens outside the UK, mainly from countries with high levels of unemployment and lower wages," said Nicholas Marston, of Berry Gardens. About half of the jobs in the industry are seasonal and "not attractive to the British," he said.
The average hourly wage for agricultural workers, including that of managers, is at a level of two thirds of the total for the entire British Industry, according to a study of Farmers Weekly in 2014. Also, work is seasonal and depends on the harvest period.
The prospect of less access to foreign workers after Brexit should make it difficult for Theresa May to seek a compromise between the needs of producers and the demands of the citizens, who voted to leave the EU partly in order to reduce immigration. In this sense, the National Agricultural Union sent a letter in July to Minister David Davis to express their concerns.
Growers devoted to the production of fruits and dairy products are the most vulnerable because they rely on seasonal workers, says the analyst of Bloomberg Intelligence Duncan Fox. And that's not including the threat of the loss of the annual EU aid to British farmers, amounting to 3 billion pounds per year.
Horticulture is an essential part of British agriculture. It contributed 3.7 billion pounds to the economy in 2014, surpassing even cereal production, according to official data.
Source: investor.bg
