A leading Scottish fruit and vegetable grower says problems securing enough seasonal farm workers could lead to “significant disruption” in food supply chains.
The warning comes from Stewarts of Tayside chairman, Will Stewart, in his report accompanying the company’s latest accounts.
The company, which is based at Tofthill Farm, Glencarse, Perthshire, is one of the country’s biggest swede growers. It also grows and packs strawberries and raspberries.
“[Brexit] Uncertainty remains with regards access to labour and our general supply chain regarding imports and exports,” said Mr Stewart in the accounts, which cover the year to May 31, 2020.
He said the UK Government needed to ensure it had a “robust and functioning” seasonal agricultural workers permit scheme in place.
“Without this it is clear that there will be significant disruption in the food supply chains in 2021 and beyond,” added Mr Stewart.
“We have adopted any measures that we can to mitigate these risks but it is very clear that the general level of uncertainty is unhelpful across our sector, particularly in terms of recruiting the traditional skilled labour force that is necessary to keep food shelves stocked across Great Britain.”
Union warns soft fruit sector needs seasonal workers to stay viable
Sales boost
The latest accounts, filed with Companies House, show a 10% increase in turnover to £26.6 million.
The bulk of sales were in the UK – worth £26.35m – while sales to Europe were down 43% to £234,600, from £414,433 previously.
The company also enjoyed a 16% increase in pre-tax profits to £2.167m, from £1.875m the year before, however gross profit margin reduced to 30.2% from 32.9% the year before.
“A prolonged wet spell of weather from October 2019, right through the winter, led to challenging growing and harvest conditions for swede,” said Mr Stewart.
“This contributed to a significant increase in variable costs for a large part of the financial year. However, market supply did tighten up as a result of this and coupled with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in February/March 2020, there was increased demand for our produce.”
He added: “We are delighted to report that we have been able to service all of our customers, and more, on time and in full, throughout the pandemic to date.”
Covid-19 challenges
Mr Stewart said the company had experienced disruption, increased costs, and “significant operational challenges” due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have been under extreme pressure from our customers to deliver throughout, which we have done so do date,” he added.
“However, we would not be immune to potential shut downs if the infection was introduced to our site so we have taken strong and robust measures to try and prevent this. We have also put in place plans for this eventuality and are confident our customers could continue to be serviced.”