British strawberries threatened by lack of pickers

London, May 29: One of the most enduring symbols of British summer life, strawberries and cream at Wimbledon's tennis tournament, may be under threat because of a shortage of foreign fruit pickers.

The National Farmers Union says European Union migrant workers, who usually form the bulk of the labour force picking fruit on British farms over the summer months, are now less keen to come and work here and horticulture is suffering.

Philip Hudson, the NFU's chief adviser on horticulture, says there is a real danger that summer crops including strawberries, raspberries and salads will be left unharvested in the fields because migrant workers are going elsewhere.

''There has been a fall off in the numbers of people coming from countries like Poland and other places and that has implications for horticultural businesses,'' he told Reuters.

''The immediate demand is for seasonal workers to pick the fruit and salad vegetable harvests.'' According to British government data, the number of Eastern Europeans coming to work in British agricultural jobs peaked at 22,700 in 2005 but dropped to 19,896 in 2006. In the first three months of this year, only 3,400 workers came.

The shortfall means crops may be left to rot in the fields.

''In some countries where the standard of living has increased more than could have been expected and more quickly these workers are deciding to stay at home,'' said Hudson.

''And others are still coming here but deciding to do other jobs in industry maybe hospitality or other trades.'' The NFU is urging the government to reverse recent changes to its seasonal agricultural workers scheme (SAWS) which has been running since the 1940s to allow students from non-EU countries permits for seasonal work.

The government cut the number of available permits for 2007 to 16,250 from 24,000 and has added a requirement that 40 percent of SAWS workers should come from Romania and Bulgaria.

According to Fruitful Limited, a firm which recruits workers for British agriculture, it is up to growers and farmers to ensure potential employees know they will be well treated.

''There is no getting around the fact that manual harvesting is very physically demanding. You are out in the fields, bending down, and it might be raining or it might be really hot,'' said spokeswoman Rachel Hubbard. ''And the fact is that strawberries have to be picked by hand, there is no machine that can do it.''

Reuters>