Brexit has resulted in a a decline in the number of home-grown products on supermarket shelves in Britain, farming chiefs have warned. Farmers in Kent told MPs that it is now easier to import some fruits than harvest them, according to reports.
The group of visiting MPs were told that this was due to strict limits on the number of seasonal workers from the EU in the wake of the UK leaving the bloc. It came as Labour MP Hilary Benn led a delegation of MPs and industry chiefs to visit Winterwood’s farms in Kent to see the difficulties they are facing with labour shortages, the Independent reports.
They were told the problem had hit the whole farming sector – resulting in less fresh, more expensive imported fruit in British supermarkets to cover the shortfall. The UK Trade and Business Commission delegation, which is examining the impact of Brexit, was also said to have been told that British farmers’ off-season trade had been badly hit.
Previously farmers could sell surplus from overseas operations to EU markets. However, it is understood that new Brexit red tape means they must now pay to dispose of this fruit.
Stephen Taylor, managing director of Winterwood in Maidstone, said the government’s advice to replace lost EU labour with British workers and robots showed how “out of touch” ministers had become. He told the Independent: "The flow of people coming from Europe to work for the summer has declined every year since Brexit, particularly the last two summers, and as a direct result we are now growing less and importing more".
He called for more flexible seasonal work visas and said the industry had been "choked". Mr Benn and Peter Norris, co-convenors of the commission, have now written to home secretary Priti Patel and environment secretary George Eustice to request urgent meetings on the problems affecting British farms.
