Labor shortages lead to rotting fruit and vegetables on British farms, £22 million worth of food waste

16 Aug 2022 --- A new survey conducted by the UK’s National Farmers’ Union (NFU) indicates that the nation’s 2022 fruit and vegetable harvest has been significantly impacted because there aren’t enough people to pick the crops. 

The survey results show that £22 million (US$26.5 million) worth of fruit and vegetables has been wasted directly because of workforce shortages in the first half of 2022 alone. As the survey represents around a third of the UK horticulture sector, the NFU estimates the overall value of food wasted accumulates to more than £60 million (US$72.2 million).

“The results demonstrate the detrimental impact workforce shortages are having on the food and farming sector, resulting in significant crop losses at a time when the country is experiencing the worst cost-of-living crisis in generations,” warns the organization.

NFU deputy president Tom Bradshaw comments: “It’s nothing short of a travesty that quality, nutritious food is being wasted at a time when families across the country are already struggling to make ends meet because of soaring living costs.”

A survey of UK farms reveals that 40% of respondents are suffering crop losses as a result of labor shortages.“At the same time, the prolonged dry weather and record temperatures have created a really challenging growing environment for our fruit and vegetables. Every crop is valuable – to the farm business and to the people whose plates they fill. We simply can’t afford to be leaving food unpicked.”

Food can’t go unpicked during cost of living crisis
The survey reveals that 40% of respondents are suffering crop losses as a result of labor shortages, while 56% of respondents reported a fall in production – averaging a 19% reduction across the businesses.

On average, for the 2022 season so far, businesses are experiencing worker shortages of 14%. This is based on recruitment and does not factor in the added effects of early leavers.

Meanwhile, 17% of workers recruited did not turn up and 9% of workers left their contract early. All in all, growers expect a further fall in production in 2023 of 4.4%.

“With the demand on the Seasonal Workers Scheme expected to increase again next year, it’s vital the scheme has the capacity to facilitate the people the sector needs to pick, pack and process the country’s fruit and vegetables,” highlights Bradshaw.

“This means increasing the number of visas available to meet the sector’s needs and expanding it to a minimum of a five-year rolling scheme to enable growers to have the confidence to invest in their businesses – particularly given growth in the horticultural sector is a government ambition set out in the National Food Strategy.”

At the consumer-level, supermarkets across the UK are championing policies to reduce household food waste, such as the removal of best-before dates. “This survey has demonstrated just how crucial it is for fruit and veg growers to have access to the workforce they need. Expanding the Seasonal Workers Scheme will play a vital role in enabling that access and ensuring we don’t see this devastating level of food waste next year.”

The UK food harvesting and processing sectors frequently struggle with labor shortages, which were particularly exacerbated last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the government sought out the aid of local prisoners to plug the gaps, which left foodservice businesses, such as KFC and Nando’s, low-stocked.

Food waste, a commodity?
In a bid to reduce the amount of fresh produce that is underutilized, UK supermarket chain Waitrose & Partners recently moved to ditch “best before” dates on nearly 500 fresh products, while another local grocer, Morrisons, scrapped its “use by” dates from Arla-supplied milk.

Food waste is significantly reduced when raw materials are utilized to their fullest extent, such as in Gavan Technologies’ novel process to extract protein from lentils. Parallel to this, upcycling is increasingly being leveraged across industry to turn would-be wasted raw material into functional ingredients, such as bovine colostrum, stabilizers and even natural umami.

US-based food company Do Good Foods offers one good example of this, with its upcycling of surplus chicken from supermarkets for use in meat products, including hotdogs. In other moves, Blendhub and Essence Food are upcycling food waste into 3D-printed nutrients.

Further tapping into the hidden potential of food waste, Biological waste found at every step of the food chain was found to be capable of replacing a fifth of Russian gas imports. By 2050, the amount of gas extracted from biomethane can potentially equal what the EU imported from Russia in 2021.

Edited by Benjamin Ferrer