As a grower, no one will know better than you that British horticulture and ornamentals urgently need commitment from government to a seasonal workers scheme with sufficient permit numbers for 2021 and beyond.
We need to ensure the government is left in no doubt about the challenges facing the horticulture sector. Given the critical nature of this issue and the imminent ending of freedom of movement in less than three months’ time, we are asking all growers across the horticulture sector whose businesses rely on seasonal labour to take a few minutes to fill out this one-off Horticulture Seasonal Labour Survey.
Please submit your response no later than Sunday 18 October.
NFU chief horticulture and potatoes adviser Lee Abbey said:
“The NFU’s monthly labour monitoring activities indicate that, over the year to date, around only 5% of the 2020 seasonal workforce has been British, with the rest made up of seasonal pilot workers and EU nationals that have travelled to the UK.
"It is critical that we drill down further to understand this in more detail; to identify where workers have come from, how long they stayed in post, and what their productivity levels are. This will, I expect, reinforce the urgent need for a scaled up seasonal worker scheme for 2021 so that growers have the certainty and the security they need.
"Thank you for taking the time to support our work at this pivotal moment for the sector.”
More information
This survey is a one-off event reflecting the unique circumstances currently facing the industry and does not replace the NFU’s annual end of season survey, which will be launched later in the year.
If you are a soft fruit grower, you may already have filled out a similar survey through British Summer Fruits. Please still complete this NFU survey to ensure we have a complete data set which is representative of horticulture as a whole.
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