The Field

Eastern European agricultural workers are flown to the UK to harvest on charter flights to fresh fruit and vegetables.

Air Charter Service, told The Bbc that the First Flight lands on Thursday in Stansted with 150 Romanian agricultural workers.

The Company told The Bbc , the aircraft is The First of up to six operated between mid-April and The End of June.

government's Defra department said it was encouraging, to help people in the whole of the UK, "The Harvest ".

warned the British farmers recently that the crop could be rotting in The Field because of a lack of seasonal workers from Eastern Europe . Travel restrictions due to the coronavirus-lockdown meant that most workers stayed home.

Some of the English breeders, a Recruiting drive was launched, the call for local workers to join, to prevent The Harvest , wasting millions of tonnes of fruit and vegetables go. But concerns remain that they will not be able to meet the demand of the enterprises.

One of the UK's largest fresh food producers, G-Fresh, with headquarters in Cambridgeshire, confirmed to chartered two of the six flights with Eastern European workers from Romania.

Derek Wilkinson, Managing Director of G's Fresh sand field farms division, told The Bbc that the 150 workers arriving in Stansted from Eastern Romania, to pick up on Thursday with the bus to farms in East Anglia salad.

The Company said The Group through the lights will be distant, on arrival in the UK, the social, and everyone who made a temperature under quarantine.

Mr Wilkinson said that The Company needs to than 3,000 seasonal workers, with The Greatest need in may to the start of The Spring onion crop, followed by peas and beans-harvest in June.

He added that The Company had a good reaction to a recruiting campaign will be aimed at local workers. So Far , 500 Britons have registered their Interest .

The Air Charter Service, a private company, already arranged flights for seasonal workers in other countries. It flew 1,000 state workers to Germany from Bulgaria and Romania in The Last few weeks.

The workers are on Board in Iasi, Eastern Romania, after their temperatures taken and filling out a health questionnaire. The Bbc understands that you are from The Airport with small buses to the farms in The South -East and The Midlands .

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) said that up to 70,000 fruit-and vegetable-pickers were needed. It is the call for a modern "land-army" of the British workers.

NFU Vice President Tom Bradshaw told The Bbc : "to pick breeders that will grow to a seasonal worker, and packaging our fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers are extremely concerned about the impact of coronavirus restrictions may have on their ability to recruit this critical workforce this season. "

"In the meantime, I would encourage anyone who is interested, to help pick up for great Britain this summer, to contact one of the approved agricultural Recruiter. "

A national campaign to appeal to students and those who have lost their jobs, to help you in bars, cafes and shops, with The Harvest .

Several systems have been Set Up , to the recruitment of new workers. You belong to one of the aid organization Concordia, which usually helps Young People to organize experiences abroad, and another one of the industry bodies British summer fruit and British Apples and pears.

the data published for The Bbc in The Last week through job-Search Engines suggested that those who could recruitment efforts pay off.

total jobs, said he had seen 50,000 is looking for agriculture jobs in One Week alone. It was added that the search for terms such as "fruit picker" or "agricultural workers" had increased by 338% and 107% respectively.

in fact. co. The UK said that it was a big increase in Interest for the fruit-picker-jobs in particular. Between 18 March and 1. April, an increase of More Than 6000% in the search for these roles on your site.

Meanwhile, Monster said The Number of UK users search for "farm" or "farm worker" jobs had eight almost tripled.

The aid organization Concordia, said the response was "phenomenal", but a shortage of labour was still expected.

Stephanie Maurel, chief executive, told The Bbc 's Today programme that 36,000 people had registered Interest , and More Than 6,000 had led a video interview.

But in The Last 10 days, during which almost 900 people had agreed to jobs, only 112 contracts, the accept a job.

"We have great people who are willing to work, but the reality of the work, when It Comes to the it's not really tailored to your circumstances, so We Are just working through that at The Moment ," Ms said Maurel.

The Department for environment, food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it was "hard with the industry to ensure, to support farmers and breeders, you need" for The Harvest produce.

"We encourage as Many people as possible to help to participate in seasonal work opportunities throughout the country, bring in The Harvest , and the efforts of the industry are said on a good path," a Defra spokesman.

The government is not involved to Charter flights from European workers in the United Kingdom.

Source of news: bbc.com