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THECOMMERCIAL GREENHOUSEGROWER • MARCH 2018
Front cover - New standard long cucumber
variety Lausanna fromRijkZwaan. • Seepage 28
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COMMENT
Some readersmight remember a scene from the TV science fiction series
Humans, filmed several years ago in a LeaValley pepper nursery, where a
workforce of androidswas harvesting the crop. If only...
The reality is that despiteplenty of ill-informed comment about opportunities
for automation, our industry still depends onhuman labour and, despite good
researchprogress, there’s no robot yet about tomarch in to save us if our
supply of skilledpermanent and seasonal workers is cut off by post-Brexit
immigrationpolicy.We’vedone our best topoint out the risks.
So the reopeningof the inquiry byMPs on theEnvironment Food and
Rural Affairs select committee, into horticultural labour availability, is timely
andwelcome. The government’s ownOffice for National Statistics recently
admitted that it doesn’t have reliabledata on the number of peopleworking in
the industry, nor where they come from – its key survey of the national labour
forcemisses anyone in communal or temporary accommodation, wheremost
of horticulture’s 60,000 seasonal workers are likely to live. It recognises that
NFU andBritishGrowersAssociation figures give abetter picturebut says
moredata needs tobe gathered at government level. Surely theEFRA inquiry
will lendweight, shouldmorebe needed, to themountains of evidence
already available.
Apopular view among those arguing for restrictions on immigration is that
UK nationalswill step in to fill horticultural vacancies. So it was broad-minded
of IainDuncanSmithMP, who supports the ‘Leavemeans leave’ campaign,
to take up the invitation from the LeaValleyGrowersAssociation to see for
himself the roleplayedby EU nationals ¬in the glasshouse industry.While the
discussions are understood to havebeenproductive, it looks as if the visit did
little todissuade him that ‘scrapping unskilledmigrant labour could support
employment from the local workforce’.With unemployment in the LeaValley
running at around 1% it’s hard to seewhere localswith the skills the sector
needs are going to come from.
Many growers have already recognised the sense tomake their ‘offer’ as
attractive as possible if they are to secure the labour they need, not just in
terms of pay but, for example, in standards of accommodation andother fringe
benefits. Closer scrutiny by theGangmasters and Labour AbuseAuthority
comes at a timewhen recruitment is harder than ever but there is clearly no
future in taking shortcuts or leaving labour supply to chance.
TheCommercial GreenhouseGrower is amember of the Independent Press
StandardsOrganisation.We abideby theEditors’ Code of Practice and are
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MARCH2018 •
CONTENTS
News
4-9
BPOAConferenceReport
10-11
AdvertisersAnnouncement
12-13
TradeShowReview
14-16
Labels
17-19
TradeShowReview
20-23
GrowingMedia
24-28
Cucumbers
28-30
Classified
30-31
Awide selection
of youngplants
• CupressusWilma
• Sundaville
• Patioplants andherbs
• Lavandula
• Senetti
• Euphorbiamilii
• Ficus varieties
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