Brexit Worries Make Seasonal Hiring Harder for U.K. Farmers

Scottish farmer Tim Stockwell has typically hired agricultural laborers from the European Union, who can travel to pick his strawberries and broccoli without the hassle of visas or work permits. But Brexit uncertainty has contributed to a labor shortage that’s getting worse this year. So Stockwell is booking migrants from non-EU countries Ukraine and Moldova and trying to make the jobs more attractive. He’s doing everything from offering furnished housing to stocking Romanian and Bulgarian food for seasonal workers. Some farmers are even staging disco nights for their temporary pickers.

“It’s just any small things we can do,” says Stockwell, who hires hundreds of overseas workers, mostly from the eastern EU, each year at his 500-acre farm near St. Andrews. “It’s just something that might make them feel more at home.”