Produce pickers needed in South after shortfall following lockdown restrictions

Farmers in the South say they're concerned there won't be enough workers to harvest their crops in the coming weeks, due to movement restrictions as a result of the lockdown.

This week the Pick for Britain campaign gets underway, which is searching for local help to fill the shortfall in workers.

The campaign is being backed by the National Farmer's Union.

The agricultural industry is relied upon by migrant workers, with nearly all of the people who pick fruit coming from Eastern Europe.

However with many countries in lockdown, farmers have to figure out who will harvest their crops and how.

In the coming weeks fruit farmer Tim Chambers, who operates in Kent, needs an extra 1,000 workers.

Tim says: "The workforce is pre-planned, it's programmed, they know they are coming and a lot of them are returnees and they were all set to come up until, maybe a month ago, it looked like it would be a normal season. Since the restrictions of movement and the issues in their own countries with the pandemic, they are feeling maybe more nervous and less confident that they maybe want to come to this country and leave their families."

Recruiting locally appears to have worked in Dorset, where harvesting has already begun.

Farmer Tom Amery says they had to start thinking differently.

He says: "About three weeks ago we started to recruit individuals from the local area. We are quite lucky because we are mechanized so we needed around 25 to 30 staff and we had a huge number actually contact us and we have been training and developing them, getting ready to start the season's harvest in the next week."

A similar effort to Pick for Britain, Feed the Nation, saw 50,000 initial expressions of interest.

However it only resulted in 112 people starting work on a farm.

When it comes to picking fruit and vegetables, Tim Chambers says it is more about the mental attitude than the physical capabilities.

He says: "Anybody can pick fruit. Everyone has two arms and a head. It's not difficult work from a point of view physically, it's more of a mental attitude being able to keep going at a set rate all day. If you haven't done this work before it's more of a mental attitude than a lack of physical ability."