One of the country’s main soft fruit and vegetable growers has hit out at special wage rates set by the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board, warning they put Scottish growers at a “competitive disadvantage” to growers south of the border.
The warning from Stewarts of Tayside, based at Tofthill Farm to the east of Perth, comes in the company’s latest accounts filed with Companies House.
The accounts, for the year ended May 31, 2017, reveal a drop in profits and an increase in turnover.
Turnover at the firm increased by 9% to £21.131million, from £19.398million before.
The bulk of sales – £20.764million – were in the UK, while sales to mainland Europe accounted for £377,946 of total turnover.
The increase in sales was against a slight reduction in pre-tax profits to £1.252million, from £1.287million.
In his report accompanying the accounts, company chairman Will Stewart blamed the reduction in profits on “general cost pressures in the supply chain”.
He said: “We continue to develop our business through organic growth and reinvesting free cash generated to improve our infrastructure and portfolio. However, along with revenue price pressures within the sector, we also face a number of cost pressures.”
He said the key financial pressure on the business was the cost of labour.
“Our labour costs continue to escalate as National Living Wage rates increase, while the Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Order continues to be a significant challenge to us as it places us at a competitive disadvantage with our competitors south of the border,” added Mr Stewart.
“Our total payroll costs per average member of staff rose by over 7% in the year, which is significant.It is also becoming increasingly difficult and costly to source and retain employees, which we expect to worsen for a company of our nature as the date of exiting the European Union approaches.”