Up to £60m in UK crops left to rot owing to lack of workers, says NFU | Farming

As much as £60m of food has been wasted on farms because of a labour shortage, according to the National Farmers’ Union, which found at least £22m of fruit and vegetables had been wasted so far this year.

The NFU said 40% of respondents to a survey of its members said they had suffered crop losses as a result of labour shortages, with farms 14% short of the size of the workforce they needed on average. The problems were worsened by some staff not turning up for work or quitting early.

As its survey represents only about a third of the UK’s horticulture sector, the NFU said as much as £60m of food could have been wasted.

Tom Bradshaw, the union’s deputy president, said: “It’s nothing short of a travesty that quality, nutritious food is being wasted at a time when families across the country are already struggling to make ends meet because of soaring living costs.

“At the same time, the prolonged dry weather and record temperatures have created a really challenging growing environment for our fruit and veg. Every crop is valuable – to the farm business and to the people whose plates they fill. We simply can’t afford to be leaving food unpicked.”

More than half of those questioned – 56% – said production had fallen by almost a fifth on average partly as a result of the worker shortages. Growers expect a further decrease in production – of 4.4% – in 2023.

Farmers have been struggling to find enough workers to pick crops amid high employment levels in the UK. Alternative work, including in warehouses and delivery, often offers higher pay and more job security. The struggle to find workers has led to pay increases and problems for businesses in hospitality, logistics and food production.

Brexit has reduced access to temporary workers coming in from the EU, while war in Ukraine has disrupted flow from a country that has provided a large proportion of the UK’s harvest workers in recent years.

Up to 38,000 visas have been made available under this year’s seasonal workers scheme, which offers short-term visas to those helping with food production. However, the farming industry say it needs 70,000 alone.

The war in Ukraine led to men of combat age being blocked from leaving the country. This resulted in the British farming industry scrambling for workers from the UK or further afield. The NFU’s survey found less than 4% of seasonal workers come from the UK, as those permanently living here and seeking work often do not live close to farms and may find it difficult to move for seasonal work and live in temporary accommodation. More than two-thirds of farm workers come via the seasonal workers scheme.

The latest concerns over UK fruit and vegetables follows fears for the potato crop, with half of England’s expected to fail because it cannot be irrigated. Even crops that are usually drought-tolerant, such as maize, have been failing.

Milk production is also down nationally because of a lack of food for cows, and wildfires are putting large areas of farmland at risk.