Since Brexit, the skilled seasonal fruit and vegetable pickers have found it very difficult and not being invited to come to the UK, which resulted in £60m worth of crops rotting in the ground due to a lack of workers according to the National Farmers Union.
With last year’s waste, high energy bills and increasingly difficult staffing issues the cost of fresh produce in the UK is increasing. A great example of this is asparagus; which needs to be harvested by hand as machinery damages the crop. In previous years a bunch of organic British asparagus could be around £4, but with increased labour costs and labour shortages, a bunch is now £6.
The government has said an extra 10,000 visas for seasonal fruit and veg pickers could be made available to the already 45,000 allocated to agriculture. The problem is that the Visa is only for 6 months which still leaves many farms needing to recruit multiple times throughout their harvesting seasons.
Infinity Foods Shop & Bakery is committed to working with local farmers and growers, we believe that sourcing products locally benefits the environment, the local economy and the community.
Toos from Laine Organic Farm has been supplying us for over 40 years and although Toos and her daughter Rosa do most of the work themselves on the farm; driving the tractor and recently planting all their seeding potatoes, they also have ‘Wwoof’ volunteers throughout the year helping out with the harvest and farm jobs.
In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis we at Infinity Foods are working with our suppliers to get you the best offers on natural and organic foods, by working together we hope that we can all thrive.
19/05/2023