Furloughed British workers could pick fruit and veg suggests Environment Secretary

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Minister tells furloughed workers they should get fruit-picking jobs to help farmers who are struggling to fill vacancies

  • George Eustice expects there to be a need to recruit British harvest workers 
  • ‘A third of the migrant labour that normally comes to the UK is here,’ he says
  • Up to 80,000 workers, mostly from Eastern Europe, help to harvest crops 
  • Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

By Larisa Brown Political Correspondent

Published: | Updated:

British workers furloughed during the coronavirus crisis will be encouraged to take a second job picking fruit and vegetables, the Environment Secretary said yesterday. 

George Eustice said that although the international food chain was continuing to ‘work well’, he expected there to be a need to recruit staff in the UK to harvest crops at the start of summer. 

He told yesterday’s press conference: ‘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. 

Romanian fruit and vegetable pickers landed at Stansted Airport earlier in April to work on a farm near Ely, East Anglia, above

Environment Secretary George Eustice made the comments during the daily media briefing at Downing Street on Sunday

Environment Secretary George Eustice made the comments during the daily media briefing at Downing Street on Sunday

‘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.’ 

Up to 80,000 workers help farmers harvest their crops across the UK, the vast majority of which are from Eastern Europe. 

However, the coronavirus pandemic has stopped many of those workers travelling to Britain. 

Earlier this month, farmers defended special charter flights to pick up hundreds of workers from Romania and bring them to Britain. 

Figures released last week show that more than 430,000 business had applied for the Government scheme to pay the wages of 3.2million workers. 

Mr Eustice also said that supplies of food within the retail sector were back to normal pre-crisis levels but more delivery slots were needed to provide for those buying food online.