My Lords, I must start by declaring my interests as set out in the register. I thank all noble Lords taking part in this debate—however brief the time they have—and the noble Baroness, Lady Bloomfield, for taking part on behalf of the Minister who, I believe, is self-isolating with Covid.
The purpose of this debate is to raise two major issues, both of which are a result of Brexit. I know those issues were debated as part of speeches about Brexit, and the problems associated with it could be seen as an “I told you so” but that is probably not the most progressive way of looking at these issues. I was looking just at labour shortages, because both issues are enormous subjects, especially for an hour-long debate. However, the issue of free trade agreements was very live on the doorstep in North Shropshire during the recent by-election, where we managed to return the most excellent Helen Morgan as the MP. It is an issue that the farming community takes very seriously. The purpose of linking those two issues together is to look at the short-term issues that the industry faces, but also the longer-term issues raised.
Obviously, we are in a period of transition where we are moving from the CAP which, for all its faults—having debated it many times, I know that there were many—gave farmers an underlying, sustainable subsidy regime for the financial models on which they could base their business. The issue at the moment is that the Government are formulating policies to replace that subsidy regime. I ask a question which is asked many times: is it the Government’s intention to maintain the current farm payments until the new Brexit support scheme is rolled out in full and in place? Is there any basis in the reports that farmers could lose half their money in the next four years, because that would drive thousands of family farms out of business? Any information the Minister can give on that would be very helpful.
Looking at the different issues, I start with labour shortages. This is a Brexit issue, because British agriculture was particularly reliant on the freedom of movement of EU workers before Brexit and, to meet our needs, will continue to be after Brexit. Almost all the 70,000 seasonal workers in fruit picking and vegetable harvesting were from eastern Europe in 2017, according to the National Farmers’ Union, and in 2018, a report by the Migration Advisory Committee said that 99% of seasonal agricultural workers were from EU countries. The present position across the whole of the agriculture and food sector is that there are about half a million job vacancies, which is of course causing major problems.
For the horticultural sector, this shortage of workers means that some crops remain unpicked. Apparently, in June this year, 30% of daffodils were unable to be harvested or were picked later than planned due to labour shortages. Some produce is also being left in storage for longer. For the poultry sector, it means that production has had to be cut back. There is a particular need for flowers and fruits in the ornamental sector to be included in this debate because they are often overlooked.