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'I am out of business if I cannot get these staff' - farmer's fears over new immigration rules
21/02/2020
A Norfolk farmer fears fruit and vegetable operations like his could go bust if new immigration rules close the door to migrant workers who harvest and pack their crops.
Competition over pay leads to fears there won’t be enough EU summer workers to harvest forecast bumper crop.
Boris Johnson Brexit deal to cause price hikes and shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables, retail chiefs warn
11/02/2020
'This is going to hit us in January....customers are really going to see the problems on supermarket shelves'
Iceland's boss says a dearth of fruit and vegetables in stores is due to climate change, but a European country's minister suggests other factors are also at play - saying: "Brexit was not a great deal."
Business chiefs say new red tape could reduce shelf life of fresh produce by one-fifth. / A group representing 30 major business bodies said the new requirement to notify the British authorities a day before European goods are sent would lead to big delays.
Kent farming giant reports 8% fall in harvest due to lack of seasonal pickers – saying it’s easier to import fruit.
Kent farming giant reports 8% fall in harvest due to lack of seasonal pickers – saying it’s easier to import fruit.
Proposed restrictions on post-Brexit trade will pile costs onto consumers, representatives of the UK’s fresh produce industry warned.
A lack of lorry drivers, abattoir staff and fruit pickers caused by Brexit is threatening both consumers’ pockets and meat such as turkeys and pigs in blankets.
Brexit: despatches from the downside – No 19
27/01/2024
This week's Brexit downsides: half a billion in extra costs to import food, the collapse of trade talks with Canada and more.
Brexiteer MP who tweeted about ‘EU protectionist racket’ while clutching lemons left sour after being schooled by an expert
25/09/2018
The 'tariff nerd' received thousands of retweets after debunking the MP's claims.
Brexit’s harvest
27/10/2022
Brexit-induced labour shortages are going to be a limiting factor in the pursuit of growth, growth, growth
Unprecedented labour shortages have left hundreds of tonnes of produce rotting in the fields.
The European Council, representing the EU's 27 member countries, said it adopted the New Zealand pact, setting it up come into force "probably in early 2024" once Wellington ratifies it.
Companies in the ITV Anglia region say new customs controls are causing delays and could lead to problems with supply.
Chefs in Northern Ireland struggle to ship top fruit and veg from Britain due to Brexit complications
25/05/2021
‘Since getting in touch with suppliers ahead of reopening, I’ve found certain fruit and veg is harder – for smaller importers, it’s not worth the extra expense and time’
Supermarket chain says it may have to fly in fruit as it books extra warehouse space to stockpile goods
Crops left unharvested, healthy pigs culled and increased costs which will ultimately have to be swallowed by the consumer. Not going well, is it?
As the possibility of a no-deal Brexit scenario increases, and the government publishes its “no-deal preparedness” notices, it is worth taking stock of the sheer variety of problems that would arise with a no-deal Brexit – and the devastating consequences that would arise from such a legal limbo. Here’s what we know so far.
More than 15,000 direct and indirect jobs are currently being affected negatively due to the failure of Ghana and UK to sign a post Brexit trade agreement that allows Ghanaian fruit producers’ tariff free access to the UK market as exists under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
DWP to promote Brexit ‘career opportunities’ in fruit picking to stop food rotting in fields again
29/03/2022
Produce has gone unpicked after EU migrant workers stayed away.
BREXIT is to blame for conditions that caused a Scottish blueberry farmer to donate his £3 million crop to charity, according to an SNP MP. / Peter Thomson, who has around 60 acres of blueberry bushes on his farm in Blairgowrie, announced that it was no longer economically worthwhile for him to harvest the crop due to the value of the fruit falling by around £1 million this year.
Increased costs and delays to paperwork are being blamed for discouraging Eastern European workers coming to Scotland.
The number of seasonal workers applying to work at one Kent-based company is down 90% in the last two years and there are fears for the future.
Scotland's food and drink industry is warning of price rises and potential shortages when new Brexit rules on imports come into force in April.
The price of many fruits and vegetables on sale in the UK is predicted to rise again when new post-Brexit import controls are introduced later this year.
Fruit and veg ‘will run out’ unless Britain charters planes to fly in farm workers from eastern Europe
28/03/2020
UK urgently needs 90,000 labourers to pick crops that will otherwise die in the fields, warns charity.
Fruit importers have begun redirecting European trade routes away from Dover-Calais to minimise disruption from the end of the transition period.
The Government has abandoned a scheme to recruit British workers to help harvest fruit and vegetable crops, it is understood.
Smoothie maker Innocent Drinks has fallen into the red after splurging on a new purpose-built factory in the EU post-Brexit.
Low consumer confidence also affects sales at Morrisons, and Co-op says crashing out of EU threatens its supply chain.
National Farmers Union calls for post-Brexit rules on seasonal workers to be eased to plug gaps.
While Brexit continues to deliver more empty shelves for consumers, more carnage to our food and fishing sectors and more chaos to the people of Northern Ireland, the eternal sunshine of our international trade secretary’s spotless mind continues to deliver more doses of what seems like good news for faithful Leavers.
Mass culling of 35,000 pigs and tonnes of crops being left to rot 'caused by Brexit', committee finds
06/04/2022
A lack of food and farm workers “caused by Brexit and accentuated by the pandemic” meant at least 35,000 pigs were culled and tonnes of crops left to rot in the fields last year, a damning report has revealed.
Millions of apples left to rot in UK as Brexit uncertainty worsens EU fruit picker shortage
21/10/2019
‘The level of food waste is morally reprehensible,’ says National Farmers’ Union chair.
Could take ‘decades’ to shift away from reliance on overseas staff, say food sector leaders attending Downing Street summit.
NFU warns blanket import checks from April could fuel long delays and damage future crops. / The UK’s fruit and flower growers face an “existential threat” from new post-Brexit border checks that could damage business and affect next year’s crops, the country’s biggest farming body has said.
New post-Brexit customs rules explained as consumers warned they could lead to some shortages
01/01/2021
A UK business spoke about having no choice but to raise the prices of its goods as trade between the UK and the EU becomes increasingly difficult, ITV News Reporter Martha Fairlie reports on New Year's Day 2022.
Industry draws link between politicians’ talk of crashing out of EU and firms losing clients. / A no-deal Brexit will be “commercial suicide” with tens of thousands of jobs already lost in the UK because of the political uncertainty, manufacturing representatives have said.
A UK farmer said he was worried about harvesting his crops because he does not know if can get enough workers.
A family farm that has been producing soft fruits for 75 years has said rising costs have forced it to stop growing berries. / "Many of them had come to us for years, they knew it was a good place to work," Ms Starkey said. "But with Brexit it became more difficult and they just did not feel welcome."
Britain's reliance on Moroccan fruit and vegetable has grown rapidly following its withdrawal from the EU at the end of last year, prompting it to establish alternative trading partners.
Labour shortages caused by Brexit and accentuated by the COVID pandemic have badly affected businesses across the food and farming sector and could cause ‘permanent’ damage, UK lawmakers stated in a report published on Wednesday (6 April).
Applicable since 1 August 2017, the EU school fruit, vegetables and milk scheme combines two previous schemes (the school fruit and vegetables scheme and the school milk scheme) under a single legal framework for more efficiency and an enhanced focus on health and educational.
The ripple effects are being felt across a wide range of sectors, from farming and construction to retail.
Shoppers said basic fruit and vegetables were missing in supermarkets across the country.
Critical industry leaders have accused Home Secretary Suella Braverman of being disconnected from the realities facing short staffed sectors after she claimed that there is "no good reason" why more British people can't be trained to take up jobs as butchers and fruit pickers.
Supermarkets face post-Brexit fruit and veg scarcity thanks to shortage of skilled pickers
15/05/2021
Government's failure to allow in enough EU workers and new rules limiting visas for seasonal pickers are expected to leave tonnes of crops to rot while shelves lie empty.
Supermarkets' rationing of fruit and veg 'could last for weeks' - but shelves in Europe are ‘heaving’ with fresh produce
21/03/2023
The rationing of fruit and vegetables by supermarkets "could last for weeks" an expert has warned - but shelves in Europe are "heaving" with fresh produce.
In this film, senior FT writers and British businesspeople examine how Brexit hit the UK economy, the political conspiracy of silence, and why there has not yet been a convincing case for a 'Brexit dividend'.
Environment Secretary Therese Coffey said the British government can't force people to do specific jobs. / The exchange came as MPs were asking the environment secretary how farmers can get more labourers to work in fields to prevent food rotting in fields.
The UK food industry said the main impact of such a departure from the bloc will be on fresh produce, such as fruit and vegetables, which cannot be stockpiled by retailers or consumers and are largely imported from the EU during the winter months.
Tonnes of British-grown fruit wasted over shortages of EU workers amid no deal Brexit fears
04/10/2019
ITV News has figures showing tonnes of food is being wasted, as a shortage of farm workers means some UK crops are not being harvested.
Ministers admitted the industry's "reliance on foreign workers" hadn't been solved after Brexit.
American agricultural lobby groups had criticised some of the import bans.
Figures show Brexit compounding Covid disruption, with clothing exports plunging 60%, vegetables down 40% and cars 25%.
UK food imports face disruption because ‘medieval’ government IT system not ready for red tape
31/12/2021
Technology glitch means fruit and vegetable importers can’t submit required paperwork from 1 January – and government still hasn’t worked out how to fix the problem.
The Fresh Produce Consortium said the April draft proposals would have had a “devastating financial impact”.
HMRC figures analysed by accountancy firm Hazlewoods indicates major decline in fruit sales to EU countries following introduction of trade barriers.
Exports of fruit from the UK to the EU, including traditional English apples and pears, have more than halved since Brexit, according to data released by HMRC.
A recent government report warned that labour shortages "caused by Brexit and accentuated by the pandemic" were badly affecting our food and farming sector, with fruit suppliers often forced to leave produce rotting in the fields.
According to the boss of Europe’s largest haulage trade body, the UK is looking at a ‘nightmare scenario’ that will lead to ‘weeks, if not months’ of shortages.
A £5 billion EU continuity trade deal with Mexico, hailed by Whitehall as an “Aztec Brexit Boost”, has become obsolete – after the EU signed a more generous and comprehensive deal between its 27 members states and Mexico.
A British fruit and veg farmer fears his crop will rot in the ground this year because of a shortage of pickers caused by Brexit and coronavirus.
Vegetables discarded in field due to Brexit and Covid as divorce bill £5bn higher than expected
09/07/2021
It comes as the Brexit "divorce bill" negotiated by the PM is up to £5 billion higher than the UK government expected.
OPENING a bag of newly bought salad leaves to find an unpleasant hint of slime, or finding those beautiful purple plums you bought as a healthy treat never “ripen at home” but instead turn into a fusty mush after a week of stubborn rock-hard tastelessness, is an increasingly common experience.
Will there be food shortages after Brexit?
08/12/2020
Leaving the EU single market and customs union will bring new friction and red tape for food importers
Nimisha Raja did all she could to prepare her business for 1 January but the upheaval is already taking its toll.
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related tags
◈ food ×34
◈ farming ×30
◈ disruption ×27
◈ imports ×22
◈ recruitment ×19
◈ shortages ×18
◈ prices ×17
◈ bureaucracy ×15
◈ wasted food ×14
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