Farmers in the UK are experiencing a second year of staff shortages in the fields and in packing warehouses.

“Struggling to Find Enough People”

Daniel Papuca, a Slovak, has worked on the south coast of England for 13 years and admits that they “struggle” to find enough people.

Daniel is the chief technology officer at Barfoots of Botley and claims that there are job openings available, not only on the production floor, but in the office and in various positions. “Right now I’m looking for two people for my team as well. It’s a challenge”Papuan clear.

Pampering flower gardens

More than 300 kilometers away, on the plains of Lincolnshire, flower plantations will be in vain, for lack of workers to pick them.

In East Anglia, they grow millions of daffodils and on this farm, one of the largest in the UK, they decide not to hire a lot of Europeans this year, that makes no financial sense and means these millions of flowers will not be picked.

For years, farmers relied on Eastern European labor. Last year, largely due to the end of freedom of movement, about 275 million sticks were left on the ground.

This year, some farmers expect up to 75% of their harvest to remain unharvested.

Adam Taylor, plantation manager for Taylor tubers, said: “If you have a flower business, you have to sit down at the conference table and make decisions like we have. And that’s tough.”

At this plantation, due to problems with the export of flowers to the European Union, they decided to reduce the amount of lilies they collected. It employs far fewer people.

According to Taylor, the decision not to export means there are more flowers for people to enjoy while they drive.

Can we still farm in England?

Last year, 750,000 courgettes were left to rot on this farm.

This year, the Government has raised the minimum wage and seasonal wages to encourage farmers to hire Britons, and Britons to take jobs on British plantations… but here, it’s not working.

Julian Marks, Managing Director of Barfoots of Botley, said: “The long term impact is that we have to make decisions about the sustainability of some crops. Can we still grow it in the UK? And if we can’t, we have to leave them and they won’t have the British flag on the pack anymore.”

Food production is becoming more expensive. Finding the staff is a challenge. So many British plantations produce less and leave crops to rot.