Pinchbeck grower calls for The Government to allow foreign labour to support horticulture

In 2017 it was reported that Ornamental Horticulture had a value of £24.2 billion as a total GDP footprint. Some 568,000 jobs were supported by the industry in the same year, amounting to 1.6% of our total UK employment yet horticulture is hardy referenced in the national curriculum or promoted as a valued career path.

That year it generated £5.4 billion and yet it is largely ignored and receives little direct support or fiscal incentives.

Yet flowers and plants, parks and gardens deliver exceptional value both for the mind and our wellbeing but also wildlife and the environment.

As an industry we have a huge shortfall of labour. We have all invested as much as we can afford to do in automation but this industry is hungry for hands.

Much of the crops still have to be planted and cropped by hand, some of the grading and transporting can be done by machine but even machines require bodies to run and service them,

Haulage is a problem, you go through all the pains of growing the flower then you struggle to get it to the shelf for someone to buy and with The Government’s present mode of thought I fail to see how these obstacles are going to be overcome.

All this tightens margin. It requires a good imagination to see how we are going to lure the next generation to take it forward.

The Government has to allow some foreign workers to come on an organised visa system direct to the nursery not through a Agriculture Labour provider.

Customers are going to have to flatten out their orders and not operate such a roller coaster ordering system as some do now.

We must only ship full pallets round the country not pallets with two and three boxes on it.

And as growers we have to work together more and promote the industry.

It is hard work yes, long hours often but enjoyable and generally you are working with something that gives someone joy, that has to be a plus.