Why won’t Brits pick vegetables for £30 an hour?

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
So all those who have families get Tax Credits or they couldn't survive which means your business ( and thousands of others) is being subsidised by the tax payer , if you are on such a small salary why carry on? if its a business that's not paying , time to diversify or sell up dont you think ?
You seem to advocate, intentionally or otherwise, that we give up competing with imports and give up producing food. Well it may come to that yet for many sectors of UK farming and general industry.
 

Lincoln75

Member
You seem to advocate, intentionally or otherwise, that we give up competing with imports and give up producing food. Well it may come to that yet for many sectors of UK farming and general industry.
I`m not in favour of importing food but I see it as a better alternative to bringing in tens of thousands of immigrant workers ,its the lesser of the two evils,
As I`ve said before growers / farmers need to make their industry an attractive place to work at and the moment it`s a last resort or a labour of love for many employee`s .
Lets get realistic , who wants to be working long unsociable hours for minimum wage in poor conditions ? , its fine for the owner/famer to put up with that if he`s paying off a mortgage on the farm as he knows one day it`ll all be paid for but for employee`s they just go home to a rented council house.....for ever.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
I`m not in favour of importing food but I see it as a better alternative to bringing in tens of thousands of immigrant workers ,its the lesser of the two evils,
As I`ve said before growers / farmers need to make their industry an attractive place to work at and the moment it`s a last resort or a labour of love for many employee`s .
Lets get realistic , who wants to be working long unsociable hours for minimum wage in poor conditions ? , its fine for the owner/famer to put up with that if he`s paying off a mortgage on the farm as he knows one day it`ll all be paid for but for employee`s they just go home to a rented council house.....for ever.
You are in fact dooming business to become uncompetitive on the world stage when the UK Government is opening our markets to produce from countries with far and away lower costs than ours. If you had your way whole swathes of UK agricultural production would cease to exist and you claim that to be a "better alternative" and a "lesser of two evils". That is not conducive to British jobs or wages, it is killing employers and producers' businesses off.

Yes let's get realistic. Nobody will be left to do those long hours in poor conditions because those jobs will no longer exist in the UK. :banghead:
 

Lincoln75

Member
You are in fact dooming business to become uncompetitive on the world stage when the UK Government is opening our markets to produce from countries with far and away lower costs than ours. If you had your way whole swathes of UK agricultural production would cease to exist and you claim that to be a "better alternative" and a "lesser of two evils". That is not conducive to British jobs or wages, it is killing employers and producers' businesses off.

Yes let's get realistic. Nobody will be left to do those long hours in poor conditions because those jobs will no longer exist in the UK. :banghead:
Many would say you would be dooming the British economy and keeping British workers pay supressed buy allowing cheap labour in the country , you`ll never convince the working man any different , the recent departure of immigrant workers followed by big pay raises confirms this , agriculture could draw workers from other UK sectors if it was more attractive than what they are doing now , its how the free market works , big changes are ahead and there`ll be winners and losers , dont be the latter.

edit: Duties can be put on imports , its your job to lobby your MP and get the NFU ( :rolleyes:) to fight your corner.
 

Lincoln75

Member
Do you think the “working man” has thought about who is going to ultimately pay for all these big increases in wages?
They may be in for a shock 😉

The big players will also be in for a shock and are going to have to take lower margins , if a truck driver who was on £20K pa and now drawing £40k has to pay another £150.00 pm for his groceries I think he will be okay with that .
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Many would say you would be dooming the British economy and keeping British workers pay supressed buy allowing cheap labour in the country , you`ll never convince the working man any different , the recent departure of immigrant workers followed by big pay raises confirms this , agriculture could draw workers from other UK sectors if it was more attractive than what they are doing now , its how the free market works , big changes are ahead and there`ll be winners and losers , dont be the latter.

edit: Duties can be put on imports , its your job to lobby your MP and get the NFU ( :rolleyes:) to fight your corner.
Those increases would have happened anyway gradually if blair hadnt flooded uk with migrants in 04 which has had a devastating effect on farming
 

An Gof

Member
Location
Cornwall
The big players will also be in for a shock and are going to have to take lower margins , if a truck driver who was on £20K pa and now drawing £40k has to pay another £150.00 pm for his groceries I think he will be okay with that .

There will be a boom and bust cycle and then, just as they have become used to their high income, it may be suddenly taken away

The cure for high wages is high wages 😉
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
Many would say you would be dooming the British economy and keeping British workers pay supressed buy allowing cheap labour in the country , you`ll never convince the working man any different , the recent departure of immigrant workers followed by big pay raises confirms this , agriculture could draw workers from other UK sectors if it was more attractive than what they are doing now , its how the free market works , big changes are ahead and there`ll be winners and losers , dont be the latter.

edit: Duties can be put on imports , its your job to lobby your MP and get the NFU ( :rolleyes:) to fight your corner.
You can only pay higher wages if you are getting more for what you produce. Plus with all the inflationary pressures at the moment any gains you might get are negated due to increased costs. Wages in the Veg industry won't go up until Produce prices go up put wages up before then and you're likable to be out of business.
 

Lincoln75

Member
You can only pay higher wages if you are getting more for what you produce. Plus with all the inflationary pressures at the moment any gains you might get are negated due to increased costs. Wages in the Veg industry won't go up until Produce prices go up put wages up before then and you're likable to be out of business.
Or you take a lower margin , people have seen some growers expand at a rapid rate over the last 20 years , they may well have to stand still for a few years/decades now.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 75-100%

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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