THE UK Government was last night under pressure to relax new rules on migrant workers to safeguard the future of the Scottish fruit-farm industry.
Ukrainian nationals, who have been employed as pickers in Tayside, Perthshire and Angus in the past, are now exempt from visas under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (Saws).
Only Bulgarians and Romanians are eligible to work, sparking fears that the fruit-picking season this year could be a disaster for farmers.
Finance Secretary John Swinney, MSP for Tayside, has vowed to lobby the UK Government and National Farmers Union for a change in the law to allow an additional 5,000 people from eastern Europe to be employed as seasonal workers.
He said that as a result of changes to the scheme, the number of migrant workers has recently dropped from 25,000 to 16,000.
Peter Thomson, of NFU Scotland, who represents fruit farmers, welcomed the news because blocking migrant workers willing to do seasonal work that British nationals were not interested in “made no sense”.
“This scheme has been going for nearly 30 years and changing it has caused a lot of needless problems,” he added.
“The worry we have is Poland is becoming much wealthier and, with the pound dropping in value in comparison to the Euro, how many people will want to come this year?”
Mr Swinney said: “While it has been difficult enough for farmers to find workers willing to take up short-term seasonal employment in previous years, the recent decrease in eligible numbers under the scheme spells potential disaster to many of our local farmers.
“The berry industry in Angus and East Perthshire is a vitally important part of the local economy, particularly in the summer months, and we must ensure all measures are taken to prevent our farming communities losing out.”