Gillian Keegan MP visited local grower, Barfoots, on Friday last week to discuss some of the challenges facing the agri-food sector.
Gillian joined the Managing Director, Julian Marks, and John Hall from the West Sussex Growers Association to discuss key elements of the business including access to Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAWs), rising inflation, and, skills development amongst other topics.
As the area’s MP Gillian has done a considerable amount of work, relating to access to seasonal labour post-Brexit. Towards the end of last year, she organised and hosted a roundtable with local farmers and growers from across the constituency with Food and Farming Minister, Victoria Prentis. In previous years, Gillian was a leading voice in securing a continuation of the pilot scheme which sees 30,000 seasonal workers visas made available for harvest.
The group had an extensive conversation around inflation and its impact on the business and the wider agri-food sector, which is being driven by increased wages and raw materials costs.
Whilst on-site, Gillian was shown two of the company’s forty-three new John Deere tractors which are already proving to be more efficient and effective than previous models.
Gillian Keegan said: “The agri-food sector is vitally important to our local economy and our national food security. Despite the challenges the industry faces, as a whole our local businesses are highly innovative and successful. I will continue to do what I can to support them and raise key issues around attracting workforce and skills development with my colleagues across Government.”
John Hall, West Sussex Growers Association said: “I am hugely grateful for Gillian’s continued support, she has been a stalwart supporter of the sector. As an industry, there are unique challenges, with reduced access to seasonal workers post-Brexit, and inflationary pressures driven by supply shortages and wage increases. However, in West Sussex, we have vibrant resilient businesses who are doing an exceptional job to keep producing high-quality British produce.”
