Monday, July 18, 2022
Rising prices and fewer British goods on the shelves
The Independent reports that Brexit has led to a decline in crops and fewer home-grown products on the shelves of Britain’s supermarkets.
They say that Farmers in Kent have told a visiting group of MPs that it has become easier to import some fruits than harvest them because of strict limits on the number of seasonal workers from the EU:
Winterwood Farms, an agricultural giant based in the county, said its UK farms had been forced to leave 8 per cent of their fruit crop unharvested and would be planting less in future.
Stephen Taylor, managing director of Winterwood in Maidstone, said the government’s advice to replace lost EU labour with British workers and robots showed how “out of touch” ministers had become.
“The flow of people coming from Europe to work for the summer has declined every year since Brexit, particularly the last two summers, and as a direct result we are now growing less and importing more,” he said.
Calling for more flexible seasonal work visas, he added: “The government could still allow the same people to carry out the harvest – but it has inexplicably decided to choke the industry instead.”
Labour MP Hilary Benn led a delegation of MPs and industry chiefs to visit Winterwood’s farms in Kent to see the difficulties they are facing with labour shortages.
They were told the problem had hit the whole farming sector – resulting in less fresh, more expensive imported fruit in British supermarkets to cover the shortfall.
The UK Trade and Business Commission delegation, which is examining the impact of Brexit, also heard that British farmers’ off-season trade had also been badly hit.
Farmers could previously sell any surplus from overseas operations to EU markets, but new Brexit red tape means they must now pay to dispose of this fruit.
Nobody should say, they were not warned.
They say that Farmers in Kent have told a visiting group of MPs that it has become easier to import some fruits than harvest them because of strict limits on the number of seasonal workers from the EU:
Winterwood Farms, an agricultural giant based in the county, said its UK farms had been forced to leave 8 per cent of their fruit crop unharvested and would be planting less in future.
Stephen Taylor, managing director of Winterwood in Maidstone, said the government’s advice to replace lost EU labour with British workers and robots showed how “out of touch” ministers had become.
“The flow of people coming from Europe to work for the summer has declined every year since Brexit, particularly the last two summers, and as a direct result we are now growing less and importing more,” he said.
Calling for more flexible seasonal work visas, he added: “The government could still allow the same people to carry out the harvest – but it has inexplicably decided to choke the industry instead.”
Labour MP Hilary Benn led a delegation of MPs and industry chiefs to visit Winterwood’s farms in Kent to see the difficulties they are facing with labour shortages.
They were told the problem had hit the whole farming sector – resulting in less fresh, more expensive imported fruit in British supermarkets to cover the shortfall.
The UK Trade and Business Commission delegation, which is examining the impact of Brexit, also heard that British farmers’ off-season trade had also been badly hit.
Farmers could previously sell any surplus from overseas operations to EU markets, but new Brexit red tape means they must now pay to dispose of this fruit.
Nobody should say, they were not warned.
