Thanet Earth, one of the UK’s largest glasshouse growers has been forced to dump over £300,000 worth of tomatoes because of not having enough pickers or drivers according to North Kent MP Sir Roger Gale, who talked about the challenges facing the company at Prime Minister’s Questions last month.
He called on the Prime Minister to “introduce immediately” a Covid recovery visa so this year’s crops are not lost. Prime Minister, Boris Johnson agreed that Sir Roger was right to address the problems in the supply train, adding that the government was “taking steps” and the seasonal agricultural scheme would be used to ensure that British farms get the labour they need, reports Kent Online.
Thanet Earth specialises in growing salad crops and produces around 400 million tomatoes, 30 million cucumbers and 24 million peppers every year.