Page 18 - Ali Capper News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

By Harry Holmes2021-05-05T14:00:00+01:00 British apple and pear growers can soon export to India for the first time under a trade partnership announced this week. The agreement is not as comprehensive as a free trade deal, such as those with the EU and Japan, but will reduce non-tariff barriers on fruit and other sectors. Boris Johnson announced the partnership on Tuesday, though it remains unclear when the new measures will take effect. The World Trade Organization was notified of the changes in February and from then it usually takes six months. However, delays are expected due to India�...

Horticulture fears labour shortage despite scheme extension >More in © Neil Hall/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Soft fruit growers fear time is running out to recruit foreign workers to pick crops this spring as additional labour recruitment companies have not been announced by the Home Office. Farming unions welcomed the UK government’s decision to extend its Seasonal Workers Pilot (SWP) scheme to allow 30,000 visas for temporary farmworkers to enter the UK for a maximum of six months. Although the pilot numbers are increasing, it will still not be enough to meet the...

The government’s Pick for Britain scheme encouraged UK workers to apply for seasonal jobs The government has scrapped the Pick for Britain campaign aimed at recruiting UK-based workers for seasonal farm roles, the Grocer understands. Launched last year when Covid-19 left many foreign workers unable to reach the UK in time for the beginning of the harvest season, the campaign consisted of advertising and a website hosted by AHDB which directed UK workers to roles. While it attracted big interest – with tens of thousands of Brits applying for thousands of roles during the first national loc...

International arrivals to the UK have been delayed by confusion over coronavirus tests Concern over labour availability for the start of the UK picking season is mounting among UK fruit & veg growers, amid Europe’s latest Covid-19 wave and a lack of clarity from the government on the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme pilot. While daily infection rates have hit their peak in most European states over the past week, thousands of new coronavirus cases have been recorded in key countries for recruitment, such as Bulgaria and Romania, over the past week, according to Reuters. In other countri...

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board is facing an uncertain future. In October, chairman Nicholas Saphir said it was “ready and willing to change” in the face of mounting farmer unrest over how it spent their compulsory levy. But despite a new five-year strategy unveiled in December, his pledge couldn’t stop a majority of growers voting to ditch the contentious charge. Some 61% voted to abolish the horticulture levy, and 66% to ditch the potato levy  – placing over £14m of AHDB’s funding, nearly a quarter of its annual income, in doubt, along with its role in the two...