The weakening of Sterling against the Euro following the European Union Referendum result has made the UK a far less attractive place for European farm workers. Fewer are coming here to work.
The resultant shortage has already had a significant impact on UK growers with cases of fruit being left unpicked, or discarded due to a reduction in quality as a result of late picking. Reports suggest that hundreds of tonnes have been wasted with the resultant loss in revenue being measured in hundreds of thousands of pounds for single growers.
Whilst there are moves to allow seasonal worker status, it can’t be denied that the availability of good quality, skilled personnel from Europe is going to be a problem for the foreseeable future.
Growers are looking at areas of production that can be automated, particularly those that required both skilled and experienced personnel if crop quality standards are to be maintained.
Amongst the ranks of these skilled workers are the farm irrigation managers. This group has a wealth of irrigation knowledge and are generally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the drip irrigations systems used in soft fruit production. Alternatives to the high levels of manual attention and to the often unsociable hours that the role of irrigation manager entails is of benefit to growers and workers. Higher levels of automation of the irrigation operation, monitoring and scheduling reduce the dependence on individuals and allow people of their calibre to be reassigned to managerial or supervisory tasks associated with processes that cannot be automated.