UK horticulture leaders troubled by post-Brexit labour shortage
Import substitution, a new crop protection regime and the possibility of benefiting from any future support scheme, were all tipped as potential opportunities for horticulture, but the benefits were overshadowed by the threat of losing access to a competent workforce post-Brexit.
"The talk has been about opportunity, but clearly there is lots of discussion about labour. You have a lot of companies pitching robotic solutions for labour issues, but we are a long way from this being a solution," Sarah Calcutt, General manager of Avalon Growers Producer Organization, stated.
"Labour is the biggest challenge for me. Take migrant labour out of horticulture and you might as well just say it is closed," Guy Poskitt, a vegetable grower said.
When being asked about their confidence in Defra’s ability to secure a good deal for horticulture, Ali Capper, a fruit grower in Herefordshire-Worcestershire replied: "Sadly, the Government prioritises the industries it is going to protect in trade negotiations. It is not just Defra which needs to prioritise agriculture, it is the Department for International Trade. At the moment, they are not prioritising agriculture and they need to."
source: fginsight.com