UK govt is making contingency plans to fly in agricultural workers from Eastern Europe to harvest fruit & vegetables.
Just for the record this is not a satirical tweet.
Coronavirus has also seen a further (post Brexit) significant reduction in numbers of many East Europeans - particularly Poles - as infection rates in UK higher than home and in some cases hospital care worse than home country.
Just to be clear:
Some planes have already been chartered to bring in farm workers from south east Europe to help UK agriculture on an “ad hoc basis” - but UK now making more comprehensive plans as harvest season for many crops approaches.
Understand one of the main problems is simply the logistics. Many seasonal workers came via easyJet & other similar budget operators who are now not flying.
UK govt now in talks to see how this can be worked around with major UK agri organizations.
To be fair UK not the only country hit by this at present - a number of other West European countries hit by seasonal worker shortage as traditional East European season workers have trouble to cross borders. But UK has seen biggest decline in foreign agri workers.