Clockhouse Farm’s Oli Pascall launched a video appeal on Facebook that the Kent farm needed workers

Supermarket shelves could soon be empty again but this time it will not be down to panic buying, but as a result of the shortage of farm workers to work on British farms.

Farmers are in need of between 70,000 to 90,000 workers to help pick fruit, vegetables and salads between May and September this year.

Yesterday, the Environment Secretary echoed farmers' calls for furloughed workers to pitch in, 

Typically, many European seasonal workers fill these roles, but because of travel restrictions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic fewer EU workers have been able to return to work on farms in the UK, resulting in a recruitment crisis. 

Farmers are crying out for labourers to pick fruit and veg from as early as next month, but are Britons ready to return to farm work en-masse? Angelique Ruzicka spoke to British farmers to find out.

Britain's farms need British workers again. After years of relying on foreign workers willing to come and do tough work for relatively low pay, a double whammy has hit the UK's farms.

Fruit and vegetable farmers were already struggling with overseas recruitment after Brexit when coronavirus hit - and now they have said harvesting this year's crops will be difficult and are asking furloughed workers to help.

Farmers and industry bodies representing them have called out to the nation through major drives such as ‘Feed the Nation’ and ‘Pick for Britain’, which come with their own websites to highlight roles and explain the type of work needed. 

Meanwhile, Environment Secretary George Eustice, told the daily coronavirus press conference yesterday that he'd like to see furloughed workers working in agriculture - and that the demand was there. 

Some farmers are appealing directly to the public to pitch in,

Just this month, Clockhouse Farm’s managing director Oli Pascall launched a video appeal on Facebook that the Kent-based farm needed workers to pick blackberries, strawberries and raspberries.

He said the Clockhouse farms need just under 1,000 people to help pick crops, which includes needing to pick 70 million punnets of fruit, and do husbandry work.

Environment Secretary George Eustice wants Britons to pitch in on farms

Yet, on the surface it seems that tens of thousands of British people are being rejected for jobs such as this.

Many unemployed Britons have applied to various farms but been unsuccessful. Farm recruitment charity Concordia says that out of 36,000 applications of interest in the UK programme in the UK, just 16 per cent completed and interview. 

It's early days for the scheme, but Concordia said 900 have turned down roles and 112 have taken up our offers on UK farms.

The dire need for extra hands was highlighted by the story of G’s Growers, in Cambridgeshire, which paid a reported £40,000 for 150 Romanians to be flown into the country to help British farmers. 

Hundreds more EU workers are set to be brought in to help with the recruitment crisis, but it's still not enough. 

Mr Eustice said: ‘We estimate that probably only about a third of the migrant labour that would normally come to the UK is here, and was probably here before lockdown.

‘We are working with industry to identify an approach that will encourage those millions of furloughed workers in some cases to consider taking a second job, helping get the harvest in in June.’  

Farmers need thousands of punnets of fruit picked every year. There's a labour shortage but few British workers make it through the hiring process

'It's not an unskilled job - not just anyone can do it;

Picking fruit and vegetables has generally been referred to as an ‘unskilled’ job, but nothing could be further from the truth according to industry experts.

Tom Martin, a Cambridgeshire sheep and arable farmer, chairman of the of Peterborough branch of National Farmers Union (NFU) and one of the farmers featured on reality series Born Mucky says claims anyone can do the work are wide of the mark.

He said: ‘People have been referring to farm pickers as unskilled but the capabilities and the skills they have is not unskilled. 

'Not just anyone can do it.

Tom says Britain has a regular farm workforce of imported skilled European workers. 

He said: ‘They are incredibly good at it. I know they are still flying some workers in from Romania but these aren’t just random Romanians off the street.

‘These are workers that have worked on farms in previous years that would walk straight onto a strawberry or asparagus field and be able to pick 50 bunches an hour.’

Tom Martin, a Cambridgeshire farmer, chairman of the of Peterborough branch of National Farmers Union (NFU) and one of the farmers featured on reality series Born Mucky says picking fruit on farms is not an unskilled job

Jane Peckham, head recruiter at Clock House Farm, which boasts 330 hectares of farmland and grows strawberries, raspberries and apples, to name but a few, says it will prioritise applicants that have experience and can commit to the season.

She says: ‘Fruit does have to be well picked as supermarkets have a high standard. We are governed by what they want and that’s why we prefer experience.

‘I’m not saying we won’t also hire inexperienced workers. We provide training and show them how to do it and give them pickers they can follow. They do get training.’

'We need people who are committed and physically fit to keep food prices low' 

Ali Capper, is a partner at Stocks Farm and says that physical fitness and dexterity are vital to keep food prices low

Ali Capper a partner of Stocks Farm in Worcestershire employs 12 British farm workers and four from Poland and eight other casual staff.  

But this number ramps up to 70 people in August/September right through till the middle end of October.

Age is not a drawback. Ali’s youngest worker is William Binnersley, 19, from Bristol University while another worker, Andrew Fletcher is 53 and has a background in construction work.  

She says physical fitness and dexterity is vital. ‘We need people who are physically fit. This sounds obvious but it’s not a skill everyone has. 

'We need people with good dual manual dexterity. The ability to use both hands and good hand eye co-ordination is vital.

'The reason why commitment and experience is so vital we are essentially a factory without a roof. We have to keep the costs low to keep the cost of food prices low. 

'The UK are the lowest in terms of food prices globally after the US and Ireland. If you look at food prices in comparison food prices to wages we are the third cheapest in the world. 

'What is driving this desire to commitment and experience is we have to have high productivity level as we have to keep the costs of punnet/bag low.'

'I did fruit-picking in my teens - it's hard work' 

Physical fitness and endurance is also a requirement for picking work on farms.

Tom recalls: ‘In my teens I did a bit fruit picking in my summer holidays and I can tell you it’s not for the faint hearted.

‘When I’ve shared info on helping with the harvest on my social media people have tagged it, saying “wouldn’t it be fun?”. It is fun and incredibly rewarding but in my experience it’s incredibly hard.

Alison Baldwin, spokesperson for Goathams, which will be looking for workers at the end of the summer, says: ‘All harvest work is hard physical work and different skills are needed depending on the crop.

‘Fitness wise – it depends on the crop you are harvesting but there is an element of bending, stretching and carrying but all done outdoors with the exception of crops grown under poly tunnels or glass.’

She says this is partly why experienced workers from abroad may be considered first. 

She said: ‘A lot of harvest workers will be returning workers so will be familiar with the scope of the role and will be trained and therefore skilled.’

Pickers are often required to work long hours and start much earlier in the day than a typical office worker would to avoid the heat of the day.

Tom explains: ‘You are getting up at dawn, which in July is before 4am. 

'If it’s not something you are suited to or are conditioned to be able to do then it is incredibly hard.’

Furloughed workers can't commit for long enough

An international charity that aids with farm recruitment, Concordia, points out that the main barriers to people accepting roles have been that the candidate is unable to accept the length of the contract.

Furloughed workers, in particular, are hesitant to commit in case they're needed again. This uncertainty is not what farmers need.  

Concordia says that some also live too far away from the farms that need work and that they don’t want to travel or commute.

The pandemic means that some have care responsibilities that prevent full-time work or that they only want to do part-time work.

But when farmers need to pick a crop they need the certainty of workers committing to the season. If workers leave and can't pick the fruit there's a good chance the opportunity to pick will be missed. 

Tom Martin walks on his farm in Cambridgeshire. He warns of the dangers of working on farms and that workers need to be aware of them and be able to follow instructions to keep safe

'Our farmed landscape is beautiful but it can be deadly'

Harvesting crops or working on farms may seem like fun but there are many dangers lurking on certain locations too.

Tom says: ‘Let’s not forget our farmed landscape is beautiful but it is also deadly. As British farmers we have focused on health and safety but one worker is still killed every nine days. 

'If you’re running 200 pickers and you say to them don’t pick in this area and don’t go there because it’s dangerous or watch out for that machinery and you turn your back and they still do it then that makes them completely unfit for the role.’

Does picking pay enough to attract Britons

Another reason why some may be dissuaded is because of the perceived lower pay. 

British workers get paid the same as workers from the EU, but their inexperience may count against them when it comes to the way in which the pay is structured. 

Ali Capper a partner of Stocks Farm in Worcestershire says the pay benchmark for farm workers is the National Living Wage, which is £8.72 for 2020 for people aged 25 and over. 

'Supermarkets who audit us require that every worker is paid the same regardless of age and then we incentivise workforce at piece work rates (paid for what you pick) all through bonuses and an hourly rate. 

'The average rate including bonuses would be £9-12 an hour. Then pensions and holiday are paid on top.'

She denies that EU workers get more. 'The base rate is not more. But naturally they earn more in bonuses as they're faster and quicker.

'Generally speaking, we would say that a new worker will be 10 to 15 per cent more expensive to manage than a returning worker who knows what they are doing as it takes longer for them to get up to speed.

 'You don’t start and achieve peak speed in one day. It generally takes between  three to four weeks to get into rhythm which for apples is half the picking period.' 

Ali Capper (right), partner of Stocks Farm walks with the youngest British farm worker on her farm. William Binnersley, 19, is a first year student from Bristol University who comes to do seasonal work on her farm

A lot of farm applicants are ducking out

It’s all of these elements that have resulted in thousands rejecting offers to work on farms or prevented them from finishing the hiring process.

According to Concordia the Alliance of Ethical Labour Providers have had more than 36,000 applications of interest in the programme from people all over the UK, and beyond. Of those, 16 per cent opt to interview for a role and 6,000 completed it.

Concordia adds: ‘All those who have completed the online application and successfully undertaken the video interview have been sent our current available roles depending on their requirements and specifications of the type of role they would be willing to accept.

‘To date 900 people have explicitly rejected roles we have offered and 112 have taken up our offer of a role on a UK farm.’

There is still a shortage and the need will be great - particularly from May onwards. While experience is valued it doesn’t mean that British applicants will be overlooked entirely.

British workers with experience and the ability to dedicate the required time will be sought after.

Tom says: ‘I think it is a great opportunity for people and to also realise where our food comes from.

‘But what we don’t want for the agriculture and food production industry is for 100,000 people turning up for work for one day and then saying ‘sorry we can’t do this again.’