Tonnes of unpicked food has been left to rot in fields due to farming workforce shortages - a waste branded a "travesty" during the cost of living crisis.
A National Farmers' Union (NFU) survey estimates that fruit and vegetables worth £22m were wasted in the first half of 2022 alone because there were not enough people to pick them.
Post-Brexit immigration rules and the war in Ukraine have restricted the traditional flow of seasonal workers from eastern Europe, forcing some growers to seek workers from as far afield as Nepal.
But reduced productivity - allied to the impact of soaring costs, drought and heatwaves - have left some Norfolk farms cutting back on their production and considering their future.
Simon Turner, of Sharrington Strawberries, near Holt, estimates he has lost 20pc of his crop this year - despite more than doubling his seasonal harvest workforce from 36 people to 76. Of those, 34 travelled from Nepal.
Mr Turner said although "very nice and polite", his new workforce was not as productive or experienced as the eastern Europeans they were replacing.
"We are still grateful we have got them, because without them we would not have survived at all, but we have had to double our workforce to get the same amount of work done as last year," he said.
"We have just about got the job done, but the cost has been astronomical.
"The problem is that we pay for how much they pick, but we have to make their money up to the minimum wage, so labour has become a huge cost.
"I am between a rock and a hard place because the returns are not there even though our costs are so much higher. We have seen a total cost increase of 45pc across the board, including things like diesel, fertiliser, irrigation and labour.
"I have done this 40 years and the last two years are the toughest I have ever seen. It makes me wonder if we should call it a day."
Despite government moves to encourage more domestic workers, Mr Turner said it was "just about impossible" to recruit local people to pick fruit.
Another struggling producer is Andy Allen, who grows up to 250 tonnes of asparagus a year at Portwood Farm in Attleborough.
Last year, about 30pc of his 100-strong seasonal workforce came from Ukraine and Belarus, while the Romanians and Bulgarians he traditionally relied on have encountered added visa costs after the end of free movement from the EU.
As a result the firm was short of workers when this year's season started in April, so asparagus worth at least £100,000 was left unharvested - adding further strain to already-stretched margins.
"It makes things really tight," he said. "We got the people eventually, but we already had to close fields off and we had lost the crop by the time they arrived. We were unable to harvest to our full capacity and we probably left at least £100,000 in the field.
"We have had this perfect storm of Brexit, Covid and drought, and we are still not going in the right direction."
Mr Allen said the company will stop growing specialist annual crops like fennel, kohlrabi and Romanesque cauliflower next year, and will plant no more perennial asparagus plants.
"We are cutting back on the veg next year and I dare not plant any more asparagus, because I simply don't know in the long term what the labour supply is going to be," he said.
"Asparagus is a perennial crop and we are in it for 10 years so we will continue growing what is in the ground, but we are not planting any more - so sadly in the next eight to 10 years' time I will be giving up."
The NFU survey showed 40pc of horticultural businesses, are suffering crop losses as a result of worker shortages which averaged 14pc across the sector.
NFU deputy president Tom Bradshaw said: “It’s nothing short of a travesty that quality, nutritious food is being wasted at a time when families across the country are already struggling to make ends meet because of soaring living costs.
"We simply can’t afford to be leaving food unpicked."
The NFU has urged the government to increase the number of visas available for horticultural firms under the government's Seasonal Workers Scheme.
The scheme was expanded to 40,000 people earlier this year, but Defra says the number of visas is expected to be tapered from 2023 "to account for an increased focus on British workers and automation".
A Defra spokesperson added: “We have extended the scheme to include poultry and ornamental horticulture, we ran an automation review which will be published this summer and we are working to encourage people to take up jobs in the farming sector.”
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