Being brutally realistic - how bad do you think it will get?

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

Sorry to muscle in on your forum.

I've just been doing a bit of reading, and have read that the UK imports around 80% of its pasta from Italy and maybe 50% of its rice from India. So assuming significant shortages of both imminently, there will be a significantly increased demand for potatoes and other British produce, combined with a shortage of migrant workers in the fields.

Am I oversimplifying? Or is all this already blindingly obvious to those of you who are used to planning ahead?

frillyfarmer sorry just read your post, I was applying to one above!

How come there are loads of people who applied and heard nothing then? Is this another thing that's been bungled by our government?

More than 30,000 people have applied for farming jobs after a campaign to “feed the nation” began two weeks ago.

Jobs websites said they had seen record numbers of searches for farm work including fruit picking since farmers put out the call for extra staff.

The UK faces an imminent shortage of labour, with many of the migrant workers who typically do seasonal farm work unable to travel from their home countries due to restrictions put in place during the coronavirus pandemic.

Concordia, the charity tasked with filling the gap, said 30,000 people had expressed an interest and around 2,000 were currently being matched to roles on farms.

Almost nine in 10 of those who have applied are UK citizens and less than one-third have a farming background. About half of applicants were seeking work after losing their livelihoods due to Covid-19, Concordia said.

30,000 applied and only 2,000 given jobs? What's going on there, then?

I'm looking for work btw and haven't noticed any ads on my local jobsites.

Perhaps there's none local to me, but as I understand it, they're the kind of job where you live onsite while working? So surely they should be advertised nationwide?

The government should be stepping in and making sure there's a proper drive to get these positions filled, a modern day land army. Where is it?

Something stinks here, but it's not that UK people don't want to do the work.

From this article: www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/coronavirus-farming-jobs-search-record-feed-nation-campaign-a9458436.html

In Ireland, a farm family has received huge criticism for chartering a plane to bring in workers for the season from another EU Member State. But the farm, the airline, the airport etc all followed proper protocols and the workers are in isolation in separate accommodation for 14 days before they will start work.

There were 189 workers brought in to pick fruit. The jobs had been advertised in Ireland and there were 40 applicants. So is the crop supposed to just rot in the fields and customers not be able to buy it?

I suspect, having listened to both Farming Today and Countryfile talk about it many times in the past 2-3 years that it is the exact same situation in the UK as here - a huge need for migrant farm workers as locals won't do those jobs.

@BiddyPop I agree with you but you still have those bleating - - mainly on social media-- about British jobs for British workers. Shame that those trotting out the Brexit party line aren't prepared to get their hands dirty & pick the crops.