July 6 2007, 08:49

The deficit for seasonal workers threats the produce business in Great Britain

Produce business in Great Britain has been prosperous in recent years due to the active engagement of workers and students from the Eastern Europe for the seasonal job. Now it starts losing ground. The report about the problems of strawberry producers because of lack of labor was published on BBC site.

The source has estimated that only the producers of strawberry get an annual profit worth $600,000 in Great Britain. But, as soon as this year the farmers are not able to fully pick strawberry harvest, because less number of citizens of Eastern European countries are willing to do the harvesting. In particular, some Eastern European countries have relatively recently entered the EU (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia); their citizens find better paid and less hard job in the cities of Great Britain. There is a severe shortage, as the students from Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria constitute only 20-30% of the total number of seasonal workers.

The source informs, those workers can earn up to $14-16/hour, or around $11-130/day who are the most rapid to harvest strawberry. But, this year in Ukraine the strawberry harvesters earned $25-30 for a day of work, according to the data of ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" weekly".

In this regard the majority of British experts are inclined to think that the import of produce is likely to significantly grow soon, and the domestic production may tend to decline.