The NFU has written to the Home Office to highlight the concerns of the horticulture industry for the availability of labour ahead of next years harvest season.
The letter follows a survey of SAWS operators carried out by the NFU which showed a shortfall in the availability of EU workers for the 2008 harvest. Details of the survey results have been sent to Liam Byrne, Minister at the Home Office responsible for immigration and also to Lord Rooker at Defra.
In the letter NFU President Peter Kendal calls on the Home Office to increase the numbers of SAWS permits in advance of next years harvest and to suspend the requirement that all workers on the scheme must come from Romania and Bulgaria.
The NFU will be meeting Home Office officials, along with other industry stakeholders in September, which will provide a further opportunity to re-iterate the importance of the scheme to British horticulture and the implications for the industry of a shortfall in workers for the 2008 season.
In separate work the NFU has responded to a Government consultation on a stock take of the impact of the UK Government controls on the accession of A2 workers (Romania and Bulgaria) to the UK labour market.
The Government recommendations from the stock take will be used to inform the Home Offices on going policy towards the restrictions placed on Romanian and Bulgarian workers to the UK labour market and therein will have implications for the future of the SAWS scheme.
The NFU will also be responding to a House of Lords select committee on economic affairs inquiry into the Economic Impact of Immigration. The NFU will be highlighting the positive effects of immigration for the UK horticulture and agriculture industry, particularly from seasonal labour.
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