'We have done enormous amounts in our industry to improve our production but however much we do it is an ongoing challenge', acknowledged Chris Rose, commercial director of Supply Chain Systems – part of Adas.

Rose stressed the importance of staff training when he said: 'In soft fruit as much as 90 per cent of labour costs go on seasonal labour. This is by far and away the biggest cost. And you don't need me to remind you of the frightening amount wages have gone up by.

'One of the things we don't do very well is our training of labour. One attitude is 'what's the point of training people who won't be here for very long?' 'But that is changing. I can't think of any other industry that relies so heavily on untrained labour. I believe that however brief, everyone should go through a training programme of some description.

'An untrained labour force is never going to be more productive than a trained labour force.'