Daffodil and coffee worker shortages amid Brexit uncertainty

By Zayneb Benyoucef, news reporter

Brexit has been holding back recruitment, with curbs on EU immigration likely to damage the farming industry's growth, union bosses have said.

A drop in seasonal workers driven by Brexit has left daffodil growers struggling to harvest their fields amid warnings that crops will "almost certainly" be lost as the year progresses.

The daffodil season, which lasts from January to April, contributes about £45m a year to the UK's economy.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) said uncertainty over the value of the pound and the future ability of staff to work in the UK after Brexit has resulted in a significant drop in pickers choosing to come to the UK.

Matthew Jarrett, the managing director of agricultural recruitment agency Pro-Force, told the BBC's Farming Today that a lack of workers had already impacted on daffodil growers.

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He said: "We're at sort of a crisis point and we're really seeing it on the ground. Unfortunately we've seen loss of crop already in 2019 and I think that's going to be a theme throughout the coming year."

Matthew Naylor, managing director of Naylor's Flowers, said: "There are lots of factors at play. The uncertainty that we face with leaving the EU is certainly not helping."

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He said the drop in the value of the pound had reduced wages for workers.

"On the ground, as a British employer, we don't have the reputation we used to have as a place to better yourself," added Mr Naylor.

"They are skilled people. I would never call this an unskilled job. We have some people earning £1,000 a week. We're having to work a lot harder with advertising and perks to retain them."

The coffee industry has also been affected as new research suggested Britain was facing a shortage of baristas as the fast-growing coffee market outpaced the rate of new recruits.

According to the Allegra World Coffee Portal and London Coffee Festival research, the UK coffee shop market has grown to £10.1bn, rising 7.9% last year.

Researchers also expect more than 6,500 new coffee outlets to open in the next four years.

Britain will need an additional 40,000 coffee shop workers by 2023, on top of the 160,000 baristas currently working in the UK.