Marion Regan will address the issue of seasonal labour shortages

Marion Regan will address the issue of seasonal labour shortages

Soft-fruit leaders will meet to discuss the challenges affecting the industry at this year’s Fruit Focus.

Concordia chairman Robert Mitchell and KG Growers Ltd chairman Marion Regan will present a forum on the challenges seasonal labour shortages present.

Regan, who is also a soft-fruit grower from Kent, said: “The fruit sector is labour intensive and highly seasonal but, to date, we’ve been fortunate to have had access to student workers from several overseas countries. Now that is being threatened by changes to the Seasonal Agricultural Workers scheme (SAWS) and shifting exchange rates,”

Mitchell, a third-generation fruit farmer himself, will look at how to tackle the problem, and advise growers on measures to tackle issues at farm level. “The bottom line,” he said,” is that non-EU labour is being cut off at a time when EU labour is turning its back on the industry for economic and social reasons. The migrant labour situation will become critical within two years.”

Other issues to come under the spotlight at the event, to be held on July 23 at East Malling in Kent, will be whether the credit crunch is set to take a bite out of fruit producers’ incomes. Cedric Porter of Supply Intelligence and Jonathan Banks from Nielsen will discuss the problem. “People are increasingly looking for home grown in response to the food miles debate,” said Porter. “Our industry has succeeded in extending the growing season of fruit. By doing that, it is delivering great value and is better able to compete with imports.

“But will value, at the end of the day, be enough to keep consumers buying British in ever greater numbers?”

Finally, Andrew Tinsley of the Horticultural Development Company (HDC) will examine life after the restructuring of the Agricultural Levy Board earlier this year. Tinsley will explain how an organisation in which spending decisions are made by sector panels, comprised of growers and consultants, addresses some of the greatest challenges facing the sector.

The show’s forums are open to all visitors free of charge.