A SHORTAGE of migrant workers, caused by a government freeze on visas, is threatening the season’s fruit harvest.

Without an influx of at least 2,000 workers within a week, early English strawberries and raspberries might never reach the supermarket or will be in such short supply that prices will rise.

Farmers’ leaders and supermarket chiefs are demanding action from the Government to lift the freeze on visas for seasonal student workers from Bulgaria and Romania.

Each year some 25,000 student workers are allowed into Britain to pick farm crops before returning home with cash to fund their studies. But at the end of March, after revelations about the chaos inside the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Department, David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, shut down a scheme for seasonal farm workers that farmers have relied on since the Second World War.

Growers, who have long-standing links with colleges in Bulgaria and Romania, are furious after this year’s student workforce was signed up as long ago as last autumn. Each person has had their details processed and a work permit is ready for them under the seasonal agricultural workers scheme, but they are unable to obtain visas to travel from the British embassies in Sofia and Bucharest.

The issue is now so critical that the Conservative Party will today demand an emergency statement on the situation from Mr Blunkett.

John Whittingdale, the Shadow Agriculture Secretary, said yesterday: “The Government seems to be saying nothing will be done until a review of the Immigration Department is completed. Well, strawberries can’t wait for that report, they have to be picked and there are fewer than ten days to sort out the matter.”

Tim Bennett, president of the National Farmers’ Union, has already raised the matter with Margaret Beckett, the Rural Affairs Secretary, and Lord Whitty, the Food and Farming Minister. He has also written about the problem to the Home Office, but has heard nothing.

Mr Bennett said: “We now have no confidence that this matter is being addressed at the Home Office. We are seriously running out of time. Growers thought they had made arrangements for seasonal workers but they have no idea what is happening.

“The whole food chain is now worried and supermarkets are asking us for assurances that we can provide the crop. If not they will go elsewhere for suppliers. Consumers want British strawberries, but if we can’t pick them they can’t have them. This needs a speedy decision.”

At Tiptree, jam-makers to the Queen, a ten-day countdown for picking the first strawberries began at the weekend. The firm, near Colchester, Essex, normally employs 150 students during the season. Today it has just nine Bulgarians who arrived before the visa freeze.

Workers have already been processed and are waiting for permission to travel to Britain. The company does not wish to recruit replacements if, suddenly, the Government is going to allow these workers to come. The problem is that the Home Office has not clarified the position.

Chris Newenham, farm manager at Tiptree, said: “Our frustration is not getting any feedback from the Home Office.”

The Home Office issued a statement that the seasonal workers’ scheme was part of a review of the immigration system to ensure that it was not open to abuse and that “all participants . . . return home when their work has finished”.

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