Wonderful things happening after the referendum and A50

[wutang]

They will follow the money. Wages will pull them in due to increased demand. Economics 101.

As always economic theory comes unstuck in the real world.


There is a demand for agricultural labour now - food is rotting in fields - yet the wages arent rising to "pull them in".

[Fletch]

They will follow the money. Wages will pull them in due to increased demand. Economics 101.

As always economic theory comes unstuck in the real world.


There is a demand for agricultural labour now - food is rotting in fields - yet the wages arent rising to "pull them in".

Does anyone know what food was/is rotting in the fields?

Could be carrots I suppose but they can remain in the ground a while anyway. Most summer stuff has been harvested by this time of year (or month earlier) and winter stuff such as cauli, cabbage, sprouts, parsnip would not be rotting yet.

Any pics?

[Viper]

They will follow the money. Wages will pull them in due to increased demand. Economics 101.

As always economic theory comes unstuck in the real world.


There is a demand for agricultural labour now - food is rotting in fields - yet the wages arent rising to "pull them in".

Inertia. Farmers still remoaning before giving in to the inevitable. There is inertia in every system.

[wutang]

Inertia. Farmers still remoaning before giving in to the inevitable. There is inertia in every system.

Farmers were pro-leave

Exclusive: Survey reveals 58% of farmers back EU exit

An overwhelming majority of farmers are in favour of the UK leaving the European Union – and intend to vote that way on 23 June – according to new research by Farmers Weekly.

In an exclusive poll, we asked our readers exactly how they planned to vote in the upcoming referendum. Of 577 farmers who completed the survey, 58% said they wanted to leave, while just 31% said they wanted the UK to remain in the trade bloc.

http://www.fwi.co.uk/news/exclusive-sur ... u-exit.htm

Rural areas voted more pro-leave that the rest of the country

[wutang]

Does anyone know what food was/is rotting in the fields?

Could be carrots I suppose but they can remain in the ground a while anyway. Most summer stuff has been harvested by this time of year (or month earlier) and winter stuff such as cauli, cabbage, sprouts, parsnip would not be rotting yet.

Any pics?

There is an FT article here about it from last month Its behind a paywall so I will have to post it all

Fruit and vegetables are being left to rot on British farms because of a shortage of labour, according to the National Farmers’ Union, which is calling on the government to implement a seasonal agricultural workers scheme to fix the problem.

Ali Capper, whose fruit farm on the border between Herefordshire and Worcestershire sells Gala apples to supermarkets, said the business had 20 per cent fewer workers than usual in September.

“If the fruit becomes over-ripe, the skin gets tacky and greasy,” said Ms Capper, who is chair of the NFU’s horticulture team. “We ended up having to send 100 bins of Gala apples for juice. Those apples should have been class 1 apples on supermarket shelves. To a farmer, sending class 1 apples for juice is a waste.”

She said apples used for juice fetched one-fifth of the price of those sold to supermarkets for eating.

The NFU’s monthly labour survey showed a 29 per cent shortfall in seasonal workers for horticulture businesses in September, up from 17 per cent in May.

The UK farming industry is heavily dependent on pickers from the EU — notably eastern Europe — for seasonal work. Low unemployment rates and the seasonal nature of farm work makes it difficult to attract domestic pickers, the sector argues.

At the same time, the UK has also become less attractive to seasonal workers mostly from Romania and Bulgaria because of the fall in the value of sterling against the euro since Britain voted last year in a referendum to leave the EU.

Minette Batters, deputy chair of the NFU, said the UK urgently needed to re-introduce a seasonal agriculture workers scheme similar to the one that existed between 1945 and 2013.

She added most EU countries operate such arrangements, which typically extend well beyond the regional bloc to include other nations, such as Ukraine, Thailand and Morocco.

“Waste hasn’t been catastrophic this year but we don’t want this to get to a seismic scale [next year] — we want the government to act,” said Ms Batters. “Farms are having to move people around, people are having to work longer hours, which is putting strain on already strained businesses.”

Ms Capper said farmers were reluctant to speak publicly about the fruit and vegetables they were leaving to rot in fields, for fear that supermarket groups would think they were not running their businesses effectively.

She cited the case of a soft fruit farmer in Scotland who grows 350 tons of blueberries but had to leave between 50 to 100 tons to waste because of a labour shortage, which cost him £500,000.

A Kent soft fruit farmer was unable to find enough labour to pick 100 tons of raspberries, out of a total of 2,000 tons, which cost him £700,000, said Ms Capper, adding that broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkins were also rotting in fields.


Beverly Dixon, director of human resources at G’s, one of the UK’s largest growers of vegetables, said labour trends did not bode well for next summer.

“We had double the number of no-shows and double the number of early leavers this summer, which added to our labour bill,” she added. “Usually we have a waiting list of 700 to 800 people in July. This year we had zero.”


The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that access to overseas migrant labour was a policy area led by the Home Office.

It added: “We recognise securing a strong agricultural workforce is crucial as we develop a new approach to farming outside the EU. The government has commissioned advice from the migration advisory committee to better understand reliance on EU migrant workers across the wider economy and we will work closely with our food and farming industry to consider their specific needs.”

According to Defra, there were 67,000 seasonal workers in 2015, while farming industry figures put the number at about 80,000.

https://www.ft.com/content/13e183ee-c09 ... a6e068f464

[Cannydc]

Apologies, duplicated post above...

[Fletch]

Thanks Canny, so apples and blueberries really then. Specifically Ms Capper's apples and an unnamed blueberry grower and an unnamed raspberry grower

Ms Capper said farmers were reluctant to speak publicly about the fruit and vegetables they were leaving to rot in fields,

Hmm.

Any publicity is good publicity?

[wutang]

Thanks Canny, so apples and blueberries really then. Specifically Ms Capper's apples and an unnamed blueberry grower and an unnamed raspberry grower

Ms Capper said farmers were reluctant to speak publicly about the fruit and vegetables they were leaving to rot in fields,

Hmm.

Any publicity is good publicity?

"...for fear that supermarket groups would think they were not running their businesses effectively."

Supermarkets are notoriously ruthless bastards (often in violation of rules and regs). They start to think you might not meet orders they wont give a shit if its due to labour shortages.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -morrisons

[wutang]

I wonder how this fits in with Vipes "just pay sky high wages" approach

British farmers forced to pay the cost of supermarket price wars
As profits soar at the supermarkets, food producers say they are being forced out of business by unfair buying practices

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... price-wars

You think Tesco's, Asda, et al are just gonna willing pay more for their food supplies

Market forces; import cheaper

[Viper]

Does anyone know what food was/is rotting in the fields?

Could be carrots I suppose but they can remain in the ground a while anyway. Most summer stuff has been harvested by this time of year (or month earlier) and winter stuff such as cauli, cabbage, sprouts, parsnip would not be rotting yet.

Any pics?

There is an FT article here about it from last month Its behind a paywall so I will have to post it all

Fruit and vegetables are being left to rot on British farms because of a shortage of labour, according to the National Farmers’ Union, which is calling on the government to implement a seasonal agricultural workers scheme to fix the problem.

Ali Capper, whose fruit farm on the border between Herefordshire and Worcestershire sells Gala apples to supermarkets, said the business had 20 per cent fewer workers than usual in September.

“If the fruit becomes over-ripe, the skin gets tacky and greasy,” said Ms Capper, who is chair of the NFU’s horticulture team. “We ended up having to send 100 bins of Gala apples for juice. Those apples should have been class 1 apples on supermarket shelves. To a farmer, sending class 1 apples for juice is a waste.”

She said apples used for juice fetched one-fifth of the price of those sold to supermarkets for eating.

The NFU’s monthly labour survey showed a 29 per cent shortfall in seasonal workers for horticulture businesses in September, up from 17 per cent in May.

The UK farming industry is heavily dependent on pickers from the EU — notably eastern Europe — for seasonal work. Low unemployment rates and the seasonal nature of farm work makes it difficult to attract domestic pickers, the sector argues.

At the same time, the UK has also become less attractive to seasonal workers mostly from Romania and Bulgaria because of the fall in the value of sterling against the euro since Britain voted last year in a referendum to leave the EU.

Minette Batters, deputy chair of the NFU, said the UK urgently needed to re-introduce a seasonal agriculture workers scheme similar to the one that existed between 1945 and 2013.

She added most EU countries operate such arrangements, which typically extend well beyond the regional bloc to include other nations, such as Ukraine, Thailand and Morocco.

“Waste hasn’t been catastrophic this year but we don’t want this to get to a seismic scale [next year] — we want the government to act,” said Ms Batters. “Farms are having to move people around, people are having to work longer hours, which is putting strain on already strained businesses.”

Ms Capper said farmers were reluctant to speak publicly about the fruit and vegetables they were leaving to rot in fields, for fear that supermarket groups would think they were not running their businesses effectively.

She cited the case of a soft fruit farmer in Scotland who grows 350 tons of blueberries but had to leave between 50 to 100 tons to waste because of a labour shortage, which cost him £500,000.

A Kent soft fruit farmer was unable to find enough labour to pick 100 tons of raspberries, out of a total of 2,000 tons, which cost him £700,000, said Ms Capper, adding that broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkins were also rotting in fields.


Beverly Dixon, director of human resources at G’s, one of the UK’s largest growers of vegetables, said labour trends did not bode well for next summer.

“We had double the number of no-shows and double the number of early leavers this summer, which added to our labour bill,” she added. “Usually we have a waiting list of 700 to 800 people in July. This year we had zero.”


The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that access to overseas migrant labour was a policy area led by the Home Office.

It added: “We recognise securing a strong agricultural workforce is crucial as we develop a new approach to farming outside the EU. The government has commissioned advice from the migration advisory committee to better understand reliance on EU migrant workers across the wider economy and we will work closely with our food and farming industry to consider their specific needs.”

According to Defra, there were 67,000 seasonal workers in 2015, while farming industry figures put the number at about 80,000.

https://www.ft.com/content/13e183ee-c09 ... a6e068f464

Based on NFU source. NFU also addicted to exploiting cheap eastern european labour. They chuck a load of caravans on their land charge their eastern european pickers rent.

Its BS canny. You can see this too. Come on now think son.

[wutang]

Based on NFU source. NFU also addicted to exploiting cheap eastern european labour.

Read the rest of the article - even the eastern europeans are saying no. Especially with the pound being worth less.



If they love eastern europeans why dont they pay more to attract them

[Fletch]

Thanks Canny, so apples and blueberries really then. Specifically Ms Capper's apples and an unnamed blueberry grower and an unnamed raspberry grower

Ms Capper said farmers were reluctant to speak publicly about the fruit and vegetables they were leaving to rot in fields,

Hmm.

Any publicity is good publicity?

"...for fear that supermarket groups would think they were not running their businesses effectively."

Supermarkets are notoriously ruthless bastards (often in violation of rules and regs). They start to think you might not meet orders they wont give a shit if its due to labour shortages.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -morrisons

I get that but they're talking about summer fruit. You'd think the message would have gone out at the time to drum up some labour rather than in November, long after any of it should have been harvested.

[Viper]

Based on NFU source. NFU also addicted to exploiting cheap eastern european labour.

Read the rest of the article - even the eastern europeans are saying no. Especially with the pound being worth less.



If they love eastern europeans why dont they pay more to attract them

Ok fair point. Il go a bit deeper- i can tell your not thinking like a farmer yet.

Eastern european is a bit of an over simplification i admit. I was using it as an example to indicate how NFU is addicted to EU enabled cheap exploitative labour. Far and away this was from eastern europe but that has slowed. Why? (Think like a farmer). Because the EU porous borders have let millions of even more undeveloped economic migrants poor into the EU. Germany invited them. These guys will work for even less.

Its a free movement of exploitative labour. Ofc we have voted to stop that

[Cannydc]

Based on NFU source. NFU also addicted to exploiting cheap eastern european labour.

Read the rest of the article - even the eastern europeans are saying no. Especially with the pound being worth less.



If they love eastern europeans why dont they pay more to attract them

Ok fair point. Il go a bit deeper- i can tell your not thinking like a farmer yet.

Eastern european is a bit of an over simplification i admit. I was using it as an example to indicate how NFU is addicted to EU enabled cheap exploitative labour. Far and away this was from eastern europe but that has slowed. Why? (Think like a farmer). Because the EU porous borders have let millions of even more undeveloped economic migrants poor into the EU. Germany invited them. These guys will work for even less.

Its a free movement of exploitative labour. Ofc we have voted to stop that

You haven't ever worked on a farm doing seasonal jobs either, have you.

Farmers do not exploit - they pay exactly what British workers get paid. That may be minimum wage on a few occasions, but generally these workers are on piecework, ie they get paid for the amount they pick. Again, if you pick a thousand squash, or 50kgs of strawberries, you get paid the same if you are from Tottenhill or Timbuktu.

[Viper]

Based on NFU source. NFU also addicted to exploiting cheap eastern european labour.

Read the rest of the article - even the eastern europeans are saying no. Especially with the pound being worth less.



If they love eastern europeans why dont they pay more to attract them

Ok fair point. Il go a bit deeper- i can tell your not thinking like a farmer yet.

Eastern european is a bit of an over simplification i admit. I was using it as an example to indicate how NFU is addicted to EU enabled cheap exploitative labour. Far and away this was from eastern europe but that has slowed. Why? (Think like a farmer). Because the EU porous borders have let millions of even more undeveloped economic migrants poor into the EU. Germany invited them. These guys will work for even less.

Its a free movement of exploitative labour. Ofc we have voted to stop that

You haven't ever worked on a farm doing seasonal jobs either, have you.

Farmers do not exploit - they pay exactly what British workers get paid. That may be minimum wage on a few occasions, but generally these workers are on piecework, ie they get paid for the amount they pick. Again, if you pick a thousand squash, or 50kgs of strawberries, you get paid the same if you are from Tottenhill or Timbuktu.

Think canny. Desperate ppl pick more. Suddenly all you have is desperate ppl working for you with the tap on full throttle....'hmmm could perhaps lower the £/kilo here'

Think like a farmer. Get your head out of your remoaning arse.