# Brexit already affecting fruit picking in UK



## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

and is it beginning to bite


from THE TIMES ... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...left-to-rot-as-eu-pickers-stay-away-ctsdvtbsw


Farmers are being forced to leave millions of apples, and many other fruits and vegetables, rotting in orchards and fields because of a shortage of workers.

One hundred tonnes of fruit has gone unpicked in Britain already this season, meaning more than 16 million apples so far have been left to rot at the peak of harvest season due to a Brexit-led employment slump.

EU workers, who make up a reported 99 per cent of the seasonal picking workforce, are increasingly choosing to work in countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark or Germany because of the weakening of the pound and confusion over visa regulations.

National Farmers' Union of England and Wales (NFU) show:

Between January and August, 3,602 farm vacancies went unfilled - 10% of the seasonal workforce.
In August, that shortfall reached 17.6%
One farming employment agency told us it is down 27% - and predicts 60% by October


----------



## b0ll0cks-to-brexit (Oct 25, 2019)

I hear ERG and brexit loving lot is lining up for those jobs.
They are working hard on solution that will keep their hands clean.


----------



## Strontium (Sep 16, 2015)

I used to be involved in this, and I mean the actual picking soft fruit for months, in places like Tiptree and whole families would be over from Portugal (and other places) staying in "nice accommodation" and doing whatever hours were necessary to make money to live on for the rest of the year. There was very little trouble as both the fruit farmer and pickers knew they both had several months of very hard work or they were all ******ed. The same groups of pickers would be back year after year and British farmers were seen a honest. I don't see how other countries have taken the pickers as the the arrangements are made well in advance and depend on the expected timing and volume of the crop which are usually pre-sold by contract to supermarkets - jam factories etc. If 10,000 extra pickers want to go to Germany then 10,000 of the usual pickers wouldn't get work and farmers who run businesses don't play those games and you shouldn't also.

This report as you repeated it is crap and for some reason you don't question it.---- 
Quote **hundred tonnes ... 16 million apples ** 
so one tonne contains 160,000 apples ??????????????
one tonne is 1000Kg so you believe you'll get 160 apples in your Kg at your local Aldi ??????

Is that right?


----------



## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

Strontium said:


> This report as you repeated it is crap and for some reason you don't question it.----
> Quote **hundred tonnes ... 16 million apples **
> so one tonne contains 160,000 apples ??????????????
> one tonne is 1000Kg so you believe you'll get 160 apples in your Kg at your local Aldi ??????
> ...


Blame the newspaper on the mathematic equation.. .it was taken staright from the report


----------

