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Law denying farmers their pick of workers
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| Seasonal workers allowed to pick and sort the crops can now only be sourced from EU countries |
Farmers fear new immigration rules banning non-EU workers will lose them business as crops will not be picked.
Residents of non-EU countries were allowed to work on north Kent farms during the crop picking season under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme.
But now the Government has stipulated only workers from EU countries Bulgaria and Romania can work under the scheme.
Kent's National Farmers' Union (NFU) branch believes this will not provide enough workers to pick all the crops grown which could result in crops being wasted.
The Government claims migrants from new EU countries such as Poland will fill the jobs.
But Brian Adams, 33, manager of Upper Hockenden Farm in Swanley says the majority of workers from EU countries reject crop picking work.
The 33-year-old said: "They want higher skilled jobs with better pay.
"What we have relied on is workers from non-EU countries such as Ukraine who come over here for the season and earn money they can take back to their own country and, because of the exchange rate, use to finance courses which will give them qualifications to get higher skilled jobs."
Mr Adams said his farm needs around 55 workers to pick its vegetable crop but so far is 10 workers short as it cannot employ Ukrainians.
This has forced the farm to turn down business from supermarkets.
Gerry Minister, 59, works at Luddesdown Organic Farms in Luddesdown and is relieved his farm no longer needs crop pickers.
This is because he believes the lack of migrant workers "could be hugely detrimental to farmers in north Kent".
He said: "People in north Kent will not eat less fruit just because there is not as much being produced locally, so it will be imported from abroad, which means a loss of business for local farmers."
A Home Office spokesman said: "We are phasing out low skilled migration from outside the EU for the foreseeable future as we think businesses should hire those close to home first."
11:56am Monday 21st April 2008
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