UK worker shortage: Hambledon Vineyard 'against the clock' to save crops

A vineyard has said its harvest could be ruined due to a shortage of trained grape pickers caused by Brexit and the pandemic.

Hambledon Vineyard in Hampshire is "up against the clock" to pick 200-acres worth of crops over the next five days.

Marc Sanders, from the winery, said it needed local people to help as Brexit and Covid-19 had caused a shortage of seasonal workers from Europe.

He said wineries across Hampshire, Sussex and Kent had been affected.

A government spokesperson said the UK food supply chain was "highly resilient" and it was working with the industry to understand labour demand.

They added: "We want to see employers make long term investments in the UK domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad and our Plan for Jobs is helping people across the country retrain, build new skills and get back into work."

The BBC has approached Wine GB, the national association for the English wine industry, to find out the impact of the shortage across the country.

Mr Sanders said it would be a "make or break" year for the family-run vineyard's harvest and claimed if pickers could not be found there could be a wine shortage.

He explained there was currently an "inability" to get seasonal agricultural workers into the UK due to restrictions in the government's two-year pilot of a seasonal workers scheme.

The vineyard said that if the government pilot continued for another year, the picker shortage could be "much worse" for the business in 2022, as it had recently increased its crops by 400%.

The commercial vineyard has been in operation since 1952 and produces sparkling wine.

It usually employs 25 trained grape pickers to work over the course of five days during its picking season, which this year started on Friday.

However, because of the shortage, it is calling on local people to help this year.

Mr Sanders said: "We need to double the number of local pickers as they are untrained, and it's hard work.

"The demand for English sparkling wine has shot up, which is a great opportunity but we have to fulfil that demand.

"We only have a very short space of time to harvest the grapes. We are against the clock and it has to be done now."

He said delays could mean wet weather and frost damaging the crops.

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