A speech by the Home Secretary stating there is no good reason the UK cannot train enough fruit pickers, has been slammed as naïve by a leading industry figure and dismissed by a senior Scottish politician.

Addressing the issue of immigration at a conference in London, Suella Braverman said: "There is no good reason why we can't train up enough HGV drivers, butchers or fruit pickers."

However, Rural Affairs Secretary, Mairi Gougeon, said it was 'abundantly clear that our domestic workforce is unable to fill key roles traditionally undertaken by seasonal workers.'

NFU Scotland’s horticulture chair, Iain Brown, a soft fruit and vegetable grower from Fife, added: “The Home Secretary’s comments around training and recruiting a local workforce to pick our crops shows a significant degree of naivety over the reality of the current situation. Scotland’s horticultural businesses have been on the front line of a labour crisis for several years now. Brexit meant an end to freedom of movement for EU workers.

“This barrier was stacked on top of major Covid-19 problems, and a migrant workers’ visa scheme that has not worked well enough for our members. These problems have resulted in several years of worker shortages which has meant increased costs and some crop losses in Scotland.”

According to the UK Government, visas granted to seasonal workers had risen 2493 in 2019 to 34,532, reflecting the increase in quota to 40,000 in 2022.

Mr Brown continued: “Many Scottish soft fruit and vegetable growers have invested time and money in trying to source a local work force, but a survey of our members failed to find any farm that had a positive response. It has not been for the lack of trying.

“We had one Scottish fruit and veg business offer 100 contracts of employment to UK applicants - six were accepted and only three turned up to work,” he said, highlighting the low retention rates of UK staff in the survey of just 32%, while for EU and other migrant workers, the figure was higher than 80%.

“We need migrants to get the food that is grown on our farms onto our plates, and not rotting in our fields. We need the government to move away from anti-migration politics and rhetoric to make good policy. We need the government to shift policy, and review and improve the current visa scheme to bring seasonal migrant workers onto our fruit and vegetable farms,” he pointed out.

Rural Affairs Secretary, Mairi Gougeon, said:“Year after year, Scotland’s rural economy relies upon the vital work undertaken by farm workers from the EU but gaping employment gaps still remain. It is clear that this is a direct consequence of Brexit and it is abundantly clear that our domestic workforce is unable to fill key roles traditionally undertaken by seasonal workers.

“I share the valid concerns raised by NFU Scotland and I have written repeatedly to my UK ministerial counterparts to express my own concerns at the ongoing pressures that the food and drink sector is facing.

“At a time when we should be supporting producers by encouraging greater numbers of EU workers into the industry, the Home Secretary has instead chosen to exacerbate what is already a very serious problem for the industry,” she said.