Government will allow 30,000 EU and non-EU workers to help pick and pack fruit and vegetables
The government is to allow farmers to bring in 30,000 seasonal workers from overseas in 2021 – three times more than this year – to help pick and pack fruit and vegetables.
The extension of the seasonal agricultural workers’ scheme, which will apply to EU and non-EU workers after the end of freedom of movement from Europe in January, comes after a difficult harvest in 2020 during which farmers feared fruit and vegetables would rot in the fields as they struggled to attract enough workers.