The soft fruit industry’s “land army” recruitment drive is in full swing and about to be ramped up further – but growers are warning it will not provide the answer to all their labour problems.
Laid-off workers have responded in their thousands to appeals to help harvest fruit and vegetables and prevent crops from rotting in polytunnels and fields this summer.
And a few – including students, joiners and mechanics from Dundee – have already begun work on one farm in Angus this week.
However, there are fears that once the lockdown is eased and people are able to return to their careers, the industry will be left in the lurch.
That is why NFU Scotland’s (NFUS) horticulture committee chairman and Angus grower, James Porter is working with the Scottish Government to ensure scheduled flights carrying returning east European workers who signed contracts prior to the coronavirus outbreak will be allowed into the country as soon as it is safe.
“We will never get enough local workers to meet demand, so it’s essential to adopt a two-pronged approach to the labour issue because we need workers who are skilled in berry picking and are able to train new members of staff,” he said.
“Charter flights have also been discussed, but we’d only go ahead with that when it’s safe and legal to do so.
“At the moment no one knows what will be happening next week, let alone next month.”
Meanwhile in Fife, strawberries from the heated tunnels at Easter Grangemuir Farm near Pittenweem are already being sold in local shops and in a farm road-end vending machine.
Farmer Sally Brown says the 40 Romanian and Bulgarian pickers who returned to work in early February are coping with the harvest for now.
However, she needs 170 workers at the peak of the season and has already signed up 50 local people who responded enthusiastically to the campaign on social media and on the NFUS employment portal.
She said: “I’ve had heart-wrenching conversations with dozens of people who are out of work and desperate.
“We’ve had applications from pilots, hospitality workers, cleaners and fishermen from the East Neuk.
“But because of social distancing rules we can’t offer accommodation to everyone and have to be selective, so I’m focusing on local people.
“It’s impressive how they have rallied round, but I just hope they can stick at the job once they start because it’s hard work and our regular workers are out in tunnels from early in the morning six days a week.
“There’s also the worry that we could have a small army recruited then, when they get a whiff of work somewhere else, they’ll leave.”
The industry is investing time in drawing up guidance for growers on issues such as biosecurity and distancing and Ms Brown is producing an induction video to give inexperienced workers some idea of the technique and skills required.
She said: “The work is there and if they are keen and can pick well there are benefits and wages will go up.”
Mr Porter said another recruitment drive would be launched in a couple of weeks, because while Angus Growers had received 4,741 applications from 2,571 individual applicants so far, only 5-15% were taking up an offer of employment.
He added: “It has taken time to go through all the responses and on our farm, for instance, we had 300 applications but once we had contacted everyone it translated into just 30 jobs.
“Some people had changed their minds and some were clearly unsuitable – one person applied from Kathmandu.
“We still want to employ as many local people as we can, but if we want those crops harvested we need a balanced approach.”