SCOTS farmers have strongly criticised a government-commissoned report that "talks down" the importance of the fresh fruit industry.

The Migration Advisory Committee recommends a policy allowing greater access for higher-skilled migration while having a "more restrictive policy" on lower-skilled workers and no preferential access to European Union citizens.

It even suggests that farmers should help pay for a scheme to attract migrants to work on Scotland's crisis-hit fruit farms.

But the NFUS president Andrew McCornick criticised the report for failing to recognise the need for non-UK workers in what are deemed less 'skilled' but "nonetheless very competent, permanent positions".

The Herald: NFUS president Andrew McCornick

The report which also says that Scotland's economy is not distinct enough to justify the country having its own immigration system comes less than a fortnight after a visa scheme aimed at recruiting 2,500 non-EU migrants a year seen as a version of a seasonal agricultural workers scheme (SAWS).

But even that was criticised by some for going "nowhere near" far enough to plug a recruitment crisis in Scots fruit-picking industry.

While the MAC saw qualified merit in a seasonal agricultural workers scheme (SAWS) but it felt farmers "should pay something" in return for this "privileged access to labour".

And it proposed that employers pay a higher minimum wage to encourage increases in productivity.

It recognised that without a version of a SAWS it is likely it would lead to the closure of many agricultural businesses "in the short-run". But it said while a failure to have some type of a SAWS would be bad for the sector, it said it is a "small, low-wage, low-productivity sector in the wider UK context so this should not be seen as catastrophic for the economy as a whole."

It may lead to "modestly" higher prices for consumers for certain horticultural products, the report acknowledges.

"It is important that this scheme is restricted to genuine seasonal agricultural workers and does not become used by others," the MAC warned.

Scots fruit farmers have warned that the £100-million-a-year industry faces a chronic shortage of workers, especially after Brexit.

Farmers in Angus, Perthshire and Fife, which is the home of Scotland's fruit-picking industry are already flying as far as Moldova to try and recruit staff by offering free flights.

The Herald:

Fruit pickers (left) and how one farm is reaching out to migrant workers (right)

This year alone the Scots growers who make up just 15% of UK production, were 600 short of the 4000 seasonal workers they need every year.

Nick Marston, chairman of British Summer Fruits said the report "completely misses the point that that the UK soft fruit industry is highly significant with a farm-gate turnover of circa £650million per annum, employing some 3,000 permanent staff, as well as 29,000 seasonal employees, making significant contributions to the rural economy".

He added: "We not believe a statutory higher minimum wage should be imposed on horticulture. The escalating cost of manual labour in the overall European market place and its reducing availability will be quite sufficient to drive the up take of new technologies and improved efficiency without legislative inference in a labour market."

The Herald: Andrew McCornick

Mr McCornick said he was "very disappointed" that the committee's recommendations have not heeded its strong evidence that Scottish agriculture and associated industries such as food processing and road haulage "require routes to employ non-UK workers in what are deemed less ‘skilled’, but nonetheless very competent, permanent positions".

He said the union was concerned by the MAC's recommendation that there should not be employer-led or sector-based routes for ‘lower-skilled’ migrants.

“Any future immigration system must be based on a realistic expectation of the ability and availability of UK workers to fill the jobs currently carried out by non-UK migrant workers and it is frustrating that the evidence provided by NFU Scotland and others in the agriculture, food processing and road haulage industries in this regard has not been recognised in the report," added Mr McCornick.

“Whilst some heart can be taken from the fact that the recommendations advise a new seasonal agricultural workers scheme, NFU Scotland is also of the view that to classify the soft fruit and field vegetable sectors which depend so strongly on non-UK seasonal workers as “low productive and low wage” is an over simplification and significantly talks down the potential for the sector.

"In Scotland, soft fruits and field vegetables deliver over ten per cent of Scotland’s entire agricultural output, despite only making up what is a very small number of agricultural businesses.”

The MAC was set up to advise on the UK’s migration policy after Brexit, with a new regime expected to start when the transition period ends in 2021. It is designed to inform a white paper that has repeatedly been delayed but is due this autumn.