Contributing to the economy

Farmers and growers do try and employ local labour. Many regularly advertise vacancies through local job centres, the internet and place advertisements in the local press in an attempt to recruit local candidates. Despite these efforts the response from the local population is often poor with either a failure to respond to adverts, or when individuals do turn up, they frequently fail to stay on.

Two reasons stand out. The first is British nationals generally are not attracted by many aspects of agricultural work, where it is sometimes unfairly seen as poorly paid, low skilled work lacking career prospects. This, combined with long hours in remote locations and involving physical work, means that many look for work elsewhere. This is particularly the case with regards to seasonal work and permanent jobs in some sectors such as the pig industry.

The second is that most farm businesses are located in rural areas with low unemployment – there simply aren’t enough people available to fill the vacancies. With the UK unemployment currently around 4%, there is a big gap between the scale of the demand and the number of people looking for work.

All workers employed in the farming sector receive at least the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage and are covered by, and entitled to, the same employment rights and protections as British workers, and indeed can achieve good rewards for their eff orts. Seasonal workers, for example, will often earn substantially more than the minimum wage through hourly performance related bonuses, and harvest workers are often provided with highly subsidised or free accommodation.

It is important to recognise that farm businesses don’t have the power to set their own product prices, they have to use the prices set by the current market. Margins that retailers and farm businesses are making are at a three year low (July 2017). If employers in the sector are forced to pay more for labour – which can account for in the region of 50% of a farm’s production costs in some sectors – somebody has to pick up the bill. Given the balance of power in the supply chain, this is unlikely to happen further up the food supply chain, and it will inevitably fall on farm businesses to do so. At a time of considerable uncertainty in the sector due to Brexit, this will simply add to instability in agriculture and will mean food production is no longer viable for some businesses.

Technology has not yet been developed to replace human pickers at an economically viable scale. While technology advances in the horticulture sector have made substantial improvements to productivity – such as table top strawberry growing and poly-tunnels which make conditions easier for workers and allow them to work at a faster rate – many crops such as berries, apples and pears require skilled hand-picking to avoid damaging the fruit. Current expectations are that automation, where achievable, remain at least a decade away, and even then the cost of adopting new technologies may be prohibitive for many farm businesses.

The scope for automation to replace labour is also limited in the livestock sectors where IT and technology will never be able to fully replace good stockmanship, which is essential for animal welfare. As such the industry will remain dependent upon manual labour for the foreseeable future.

The result of the EU referendum has the potential to drastically alter the landscape for migration to and from the UK. It is clear that immigration was one of the key issues driving the debate around the UK’s membership of the EU, and it is widely accepted that the result requires the UK government to take greater control of our borders with a new immigration system aimed at reducing net immigration.

It is anticipated that changes to the immigration system and the end of the free movement of EU workers that will result from the UK leaving the Single Market will result in labour shortages. However, the National Farmers Union is clear that access to a competent and reliable workforce is vital for UK food production post-Brexit and is calling for government to address this issue in a way that does not cripple British food and farming.