Brexit and Farm Labour: Impact on UK Agriculture

Did you know that in the UK alone, a shocking £22 million pounds’ worth of fruit and vegetables went unpicked last year? This fact highlights a huge problem: the lack of workers in the agricultural sector since Brexit. About 330,000 jobs, mainly in areas like moving goods, selling in shops, and farming, are vacant. This is causing major issues.

The Brexit vote has changed farming in the UK a lot. Many workers from Eastern Europe left, making a big gap in farming jobs. This has led to less food being grown and huge amounts of crops being wasted. It’s a worrying time for the future of farming.

• Shortfall of approximately 330,000 workers since Brexit, primarily in less-skilled roles.
• £22 million worth of fruit and vegetables went unharvested due to labour shortages.
• Over 40% of farmers reported crop losses, with over half reducing production.
• Labour shortages are most severely impacting the food production and farming sectors.
• The UK now imports nearly 50% of its food, contrary to the goals of Brexit campaigners.

Since Brexit, there has been a noticeable lack of workers in UK farming. This problem got worse because of COVID-19. For years, farmers relied on workers from Europe. Now, there aren’t as many available. This is a big issue, making it hard for the industry to run smoothly.

Many fewer EU workers, especially from Eastern Europe, have come to the UK. New post-Brexit rules mean fewer seasonal workers are here to help. This has left a big gap in the workforce. Farm work like harvesting is suffering because there aren’t enough people to do it.

The numbers show just how hard the agricultural sector has been hit since Brexit. The Centre for European Reform tells us about 330,000 jobs, in areas like farming, are going unfilled. Here’s a look at a few key issues:

• In 2021, many crops went bad and healthy pigs had to be put down. There simply weren’t enough workers to do all the necessary jobs.
• With not enough butchers, 35,000 pigs couldn’t be turned into meat on time. Moreover, 150,000 animals couldn’t be slaughtered as planned. This made things tough for our food supply.
• Lots of fruit, veggies, and flowers went to waste because there weren’t enough hands to pick them. This cost farmers around £22 million of lost sales.
• The need for workers in the food industry went up from 5.2% to 6.3% between Q1 and Q2 of 2022. This shows an ongoing problem with finding enough people to work.
• Currently, the UK depends on importing nearly half of its food. This is not what was hoped for after Brexit.

These figures show the big problem UK farming faces because there are not enough workers. Brexit caused a lot of this issue, and then crises, like the war in Ukraine, made it even worse. It’s vital to deal with this worker shortage to keep farming going and the economy strong.

Brexit has hit the UK’s farming world hard, especially vegetable growing. This crisis includes big crop losses. These losses are mainly because there aren’t enough workers after Brexit. About 330,000 jobs are unfilled in the UK, and farming is among the worst hit.

Last year, about £22 million of fruit and veg was left to rot in the UK. This shows how serious the problem of not enough workers is, and its effect on what the UK can grow. A recent New York Times article highlights these issues. The article talks about how Brexit has made it hard for the UK to rely on workers from Eastern Europe to harvest crops. This has led to big losses in money.

The National Farmers’ Union did a survey. It found that 40% of farmers lost crops because they didn’t have enough workers. More than half said they couldn’t find enough new workers either. This forced them to produce less, affecting what the UK can grow and sell. Sarah Pettitt, for example, had to cut her vegetable production by 20% due to these challenges.

These are some key pieces of data showing the impact:

The crisis around vegetable farming is tightly connected to Brexit and other farming problems. It calls for big, well-thought-out solutions. The lack of workers is more than just a problem for day-to-day farming. It affects everything in the farming business.

After Brexit, recruiting seasonal workers became much harder. There were far fewer Eastern European workers. Changes in UK immigration also made it tough, shaking up how farms find workers.

Since leaving the EU, the UK faces many new challenges in getting seasonal workers. The end of free movement has hit sectors needing migrant workers hard. In 2020, only 11% of seasonal workers were from the UK.

This led to £60 million worth of crops going to waste due to not enough workers. This shortage issue is huge for the agriculture sector.

So, to deal with the lack of workers, the government increased seasonal visas from 10,000 in 2020 to 30,000 in 2021. But, farmers want at least 70,000 visas per year. The government plans to allow up to 47,000 by 2023.

However, fewer people are applying for these visas. Applications dropped from over 50,000 in 2019 to about 20,000 in 2020. This shows how big the problem has become.

Farmers are getting creative to deal with the lack of workers. They are offering good pay and more flexibility in hours. For example, the hospitality sector is paying cleaners up to £18.70 an hour.

Young’s Pubs and Brewery are also using technology to make schedules more flexible. This helps to keep workers on the job. Others are making jobs more secure and pay more appealing.

Industries are also trying hard to keep the workers they already have. A survey found that many businesses are short of about 15% of the workers they need. This particularly affects skilled positions, like butchery, where almost half the workers are skilled butchers.

Even with these efforts, farms still don’t have enough workers. But they are working hard to find solutions. The farming sector is facing big changes in this post-Brexit world.

1. A significant drop in the number of workers in key occupations nine months before Brexit.
2. Farmers reducing dependence on external labour sources.
3. Efforts to innovate in recruitment processes to fill the gaps.
4. Competitive wages and flexible working options to attract domestic workers.

Examining Brexit’s impact on farm labour shows a complex issue in agriculture. It has hit both the economy and the workers. Remember, UK farms really relied on EU subsidies for their income, with the EU giving close to £3 billion each year.

The UK’s farming and food industries, worth over £120 billion, are now stressed. As EU subsidies are ending by 2027, farmers are deeply worried. For many, these EU payments were sometimes higher than what they made in a year, up to £10,000.

Financial pressure isn’t the only issue. The workforce is also getting older, with four in ten farmers over 65. This makes it hard to adapt to new policies. The push for more environmental farming is tough for those used to old ways, especially through digital processes.

“The basic payment was higher than my farm’s annual profit,” a sentiment echoing among numerous farmers bracing for a more sustainable yet economically challenging future.

Farmers worry about losing their farms and the wisdom of ages. They feel disconnected from the traditional values of farming. This includes worries about losing rich cultural and social farming traditions.

Brexit also focuses attention on farming’s antibiotic use. Two-thirds of the world’s antibiotics go to farm animals. EU has put new limits to save human health. But after Brexit, UK vets are short, facing more work on exports and imports.

Looking forward, Brexit’s impact on farm labour has both immediate and long-lasting effects. The industry is changing, affecting the heart of Britain’s economy and communities.

The UK has seen a big change in farms after Eastern European workers left due to Brexit. This has led to a big financial impact on agriculture. There have been losses in money and struggles to produce as needed.

In the UK, not enough workers means crops are left unharvested. Last year, over £22 million of fruit and veg went to waste in places like Boston. A lot of farmers, around 40%, say they face the same problems. This shows how widespread the money losses are.

With the financial troubles in farming, many are cutting what they produce. More than half of farmers in a survey said they are making less now. For instance, without enough Eastern European workers, Ms. Pettitt’s farm had to reduce production by 20%.

“The transfer of goods from the UK to the EU now requires thorough documentation, approvals, and assessments,” leading to increased supply chain costs and food wastage, exacerbating the financial woes faced by farmers.

Decreasing farm work hits hard, and things get worse because it costs more to run farms now. This makes UK goods less appealing in the EU. The extra paperwork and checks also make things harder for farmers. So, the future for farming looks less certain.

Studying Sarah Pettitt’s farm showcases real effects from a lack of workers. With fewer workers, she had to cut back her farm’s work. This was a hard but important choice to make.

To deal with fewer workers, Pettitt cut back on production. This meant giving up 100 acres and making less stuff. It was critical for the farm’s future success.

Less work had big effects, especially in the local farming community. It not only changed Pettitt’s farm but also how farms worked together. The change upset many local relationships and work projects.

Here is some interesting data about agriculture’s current state and impact:

This study shows how cuts in production affect more than just one farm. It influences entire farming communities. It highlights the importance of solving worker shortage issues to help local farms and the broader sector.

EU workers have been key to the UK’s farming success for many years. The number of workers from A8 countries increased significantly from 2003 to 2019. Polish migrants made up 63% of this group. Romanians were the largest group from A2 countries, making up 77% in 2019.

Many migrants from A8 and A2 countries chose to work in rural UK areas. They preferred jobs in farms over the cities. Brexit, though, has caused food prices to go up. This has hurt the earnings of EU workers. Their money is worth less in the UK now, compared to the Euro and the dollar.

Data doesn’t always show the full picture of migrant work in farming. This is especially true for seasonal workers and those living in farm communities. Before Brexit, UK farmers got big benefits from the EU each year. The sheep meat industry is now at risk as it exports most of its products to the EU.

There have been more issues since Brexit, like food being wasted. Fewer EU workers mean that UK farms’ running costs are up, and their products are less competitive in Europe. Without EU benefits, UK farms are uncertain about their future, especially with the COVID-19 crisis.

Post-Brexit immigration policies have deeply affected the farming sector in the UK. After Eastern European workers left, there’s been a big lack of about 330,000 workers. This shortage has hit food and farming hard, causing problems in production and the economy.

Last year, the National Farmers’ Union said that about £22 million of fruits and veggies were not harvested. They blamed this on not having enough workers. 40% of farms said they lost crops, and over half reduced what they produce. It’s hard to find enough people for these important farm jobs from Eastern Europe.

But, between 2003/04 and 2019, the UK saw a big increase in residents from certain countries. For example, Polish residents went up from 136,000 to 1.3 million in 2019, making up 63% of that group. Also, Romanians in the UK increased from 19,000 to 555,000 during this time.

Many farm businesses and agricultural groups have pointed out the increasing problems with the UK’s farming system because of these immigration policy impacts. Also, the new points-based immigration system from February 2020 has made things harder. It doesn’t allow many lower-skilled or unskilled workers in, which hurts the agricultural labour market a lot.

The farm labour shortage keeps getting worse, with a 4% unemployment rate and the pandemic not helping. This situation clearly shows the need to rethink and maybe change our immigration policies. We need to do this to solve the big problems the sector is facing.

The way people see farm workers has changed a lot since Brexit. Many foreign workers have left, and now we see how important they were. This has made us look again at our views on this workforce.

Some people still think foreign workers are key to farming. They know these workers help farms keep going and fill the jobs that need doing. For example, data shows that if the UK and New Zealand trade more, New Zealand could send more workers here.

However, others’ views are changing, often because of feelings about being patriotic. More people are talking about immigration and how it affects farming. Even as 42% of farms in the UK need help to make money, finding workers is getting harder. This is partly due to the changing views.

MPs in Wales are worried about farms not making enough money. It seems one fifth of them are not profitable, making only £26,000 each in 2022. These financial issues and the changing thoughts about farm workers make things hard for farming after Brexit.

After Brexit, the UK experienced a shortage of workers. Now, UK farms are working hard to find new workers. They are trying different methods to keep their businesses running smoothly.

Farmers are using new ways to innovative recruitment. They offer more to local people to get them to work on the farms. Also, they teach more skills in special programs.

To find younger workers who love technology, they use the internet and work with schools. By doing this, they hope to always have enough workers to keep their farms going.

Changing the rules is also very important. The UK government wants to make it easier for foreign workers to come here. They are working on simpler visa rules and less paperwork to help farmers get the workers they need.

They also plan to spend more money on finding new ways for farms to work. This could mean more machines doing work instead of people.

All these plans together can help fight the bad effects of Brexit on farms. The goal is to not just fix the current problems but to make sure things will be better in the future for UK farms.

After Brexit, rural communities faced big social changes. These were mainly due to not having enough workers. The changes tackled local money, friendships, and the look of the place.

Many country areas in England chose to Leave in 2016, but rural places in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales had different ideas. They did not all agree. Even so, some do voted to Remain in every rural scene. The usual stories about Brexit often forget these important, complex voting trends.

People paid less notice to how Brexit hits country zones and the people who come to live there from other countries. Talking to these folks showed that Brexit made people see the many faces in the countryside. This led to big social shifts.

Most Brexit talks just look at the farming and nature wounds, missing the bigger social bits. The use of workers from other places, which Brexit makes harder, shows how much rural life and moving go together. So, country areas are really having to change a lot.

Numbers show that rural money making places, like Northumberland, are behind cities in making money and finding jobs since Brexit. Country work makes up around 16.6% of the UK’s money making, coming mostly from farms and tourism. There’s also new areas like farming tech and making power.

In rural Scotland, there are fewer cows and the people who farm are getting older. If there were not help from the government, a lot of farms would really struggle. This makes the Brexit changes worse for people living in the country.

The lasting effects of Brexit on the countryside are many and hard. These changes need careful thought and smart plans to stay strong and friendly.”

Looking at how Brexit has affected jobs, we see big changes in who works in certain areas. These shifts also show the economic impact, giving a clear view of how the UK’s farming sector has changed post-Brexit.

Before Brexit, the UK’s farms relied on workers from Eastern Europe. This was key, with the agricultural sector worth $34.2 billion in 2020. After Brexit, fewer EU workers means many farming jobs are empty. This is a big issue, especially in areas like raising livestock, which was worth $19.3 billion last year. Without enough workers, farming faces serious challenges in surviving long-term.

Shifting workforce has had a big impact on the UK’s farming economy. For example, the UK bought $75.5 billion in farm goods from others in 2020. This shows how much it relies on imports. Yet, the U.S. selling $2.7 billion shows it’s an important trade partner for the UK. However, Brexit has slowed down the UK’s economic bounce back compared to others. Research found food costs increased by 1.5% over the last year.

How the U.S. deals with the UK and the EU after Brexit is another key point. The U.S. selling $12 billion to EU countries but less to the UK shows challenges with future trade. This could lead to changes in trade relationships going forward.

So, Brexit has changed the job market and the economy in noticeable and complex ways. It’s making the UK rethink how to approach farming in the future.

The agri-food system is changing a lot, thanks to new technology. In high-income countries, only 10 percent of the workforce is in the agri-food system. Most jobs are off-farm in food processing and services. This change makes us rethink how we use labour, especially looking at how farming used to boost poor countries’ economies.

More protein- and nutrient-rich food is needed because of city dwellers. This demand is shifting jobs away from farms. Today, agricultural technology is vital to handle more work. Robotic systems and AI help with hard jobs like picking fresh fruits and vegetables. These methods are key to fighting labour shortages.

The pandemic also sped up using more automation and digital tech in the agri-food sector. It lessens the need for workers to migrate for farm work and shows issues in our supply chains.

Farms like Uphhouse Farm Ltd. with 840,000 birds are showing how technology can keep up high standards. They use the latest tech like Healthy Heifer and MooCall. For example, MooCall has cut down on calf deaths by half, saving a lot of time for farmers.

In places like Africa, where farming work is not very productive, technology offers big changes. By making farming more efficient and productive, these techs can change how the world’s food system works. They lead us to a modern, sustainable farming future.

In the end, using agricultural technology is crucial for solving labour shortages. It helps make agriculture more sustainable and resilient worldwide.

The Brexit negotiations impacted trading conditions and changed how the UK does agriculture. The UK is not in the EU anymore, affecting many people and the economy. This situation has brought changes to how things work in this area.

The early Brexit deals changed lots of things in UK agriculture. Before, the UK got big money, like €37.8 billion from 2010-2019, from the EU’s farming fund. But with Brexit, trading £24.4 billion more food than it sold in 2018 showed the UK needed new plans.

With farming and exports, the future is challenging. Some areas, like Welsh sheep and beef farms, might struggle more. They face changing market trends. To deal with the £75.5 billion imports of farm goods against a £34.2 billion industry (in 2020), new smart plans are needed.

The cost of food has gone up by 1.5% since Brexit (2020-2021). The UK must take smart steps in politics and economics to cope. It’s crucial to strengthen the industry and invest in its future.

Brexit has changed UK agriculture significantly, affecting how farms work and produce food. Before, many workers came from abroad to help on farms. But now, it’s harder for them to come.

The period from 2017 to 2020 was a bridge to adjust to new rules. When 2021 hit, the UK felt the full force of these changes. There were over 500,000 jobs needing workers, but they couldn’t be filled.

The government tried to help with the EU Settlement Scheme and a special workers’ scheme. But problems like changing money value and visa issues still make things tough. A lot of people in farming feel unhappy about Brexit’s effects. Many think it’s bad for the UK economy and their businesses.

Farmers growing cereals, oilseed rape, and vegetables are especially worried. They believe changes to how we work and what policies we follow are crucial. Getting these right is key for UK farming’s future.