The Scottish Government has called on the UK Government to compensate the country’s soft fruit sector for losses caused from unpicked crops and the labour shortage, according to a report in The Courier.
SNP rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon said issues with labour shortages in Scotland were the result of decisions made by Westminster. “The labour shortage on soft fruit farms is a result of UK Government decisions on Brexit,” she said. “It should be the UK Government which funds the costs of their actions. Without changes from the UK Government, our industries will continue to suffer.”
She added, “Therefore we will continue to make representations to them. We will work with stakeholders to look at all ways to improve the situation. “We have been met with little response and little engagement from the UK Government.
“The Scottish Government should not have to continually clean up the mess made by the poor decisions of the UK Government, it should be up to them to compensate and make up for the losses made as a result of their decision making.”
A UK Government spokesperson said, “The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain – which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges. This year we expanded the Seasonal Workers Pilot to 30,000 visas for workers to come to the UK for up to six months.”