Plane carrying 150 fruit and veg pickers from Romania lands at Stansted

The first plane carrying 150 ‘critically important’ Romanian fruit and vegetable pickers landed at Stansted this afternoon. 

The young Romanians, a mix of men and women and all wearing face masks, filed out of the near empty airport in groups of five to comply with social distancing.

They were then transported by buses to a 7,000 hectare super farm in East Anglia ahead of the start of the picking season on Monday. 

The Romanians are joining the fight with the British ‘land army’ to save the UK’s harvests from rotting in fields.

The Country Land & Business Association has said more than 30,000 people have signed up as volunteers, but that 80,000 workers are needed to ensure fruit and vegetables are picked on time, ready to feed the nation. 

In recent years, British farms have come to rely on an army of 90,000 fruit and vegetable pickers from Eastern Europe to collect the summer harvest.

But this year with almost all European countries are in lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Travel has been hugely restricted and there are real fears crops could go to waste in fields. 

Food giants G’s Fresh paid around £40,000 for the Titan Airways AirBus 320 flight because flights have been cancelled and borders closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Beverly Dixon, HR director for the company, said: ‘By putting on this flight we are honouring our commitment to those who have worked with us over a number of years.

‘They are critically important to collecting the crops, in this case gem lettuces. They will underpin our efficiency as we train up the new British staff. Without them we would have crops rotting in the field.’

In recent years farmers have come to rely on around 90,000 summer pickers from Eastern Europe. 

But with 450,000 new unemployment benefit claims lodged since the Covid-19 crisis began, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs put out an appeal for a home grown land army.

So far around 32,000 have signed up for the scheme but only 4,000 have actually made themselves available for interview.

The Country Land and Business Association warned that crops could be left to rot if farmers failed to find workers.

G’s Fresh said they had offered jobs to 500 Brits and hoped that 60 per cent of the 1,250 seasonal workforce would be home grown.

‘We have been encouraged by the number of British people who have applied’ added Miss Dixon. ‘There were many more who made an initial enquiry but some decided not to go ahead.

‘From our perspective, to go from zero to 500 is a good start but if everybody was brand new it would be very hard.

‘These workers from Romania know about the food safety. They will provide the platform while we train up the Brits.’

Usually such workers arrive in Britain by car and ferry but this year the closure of borders across Europe due to the Covid-19 pandemic, made that impossible.

The costs of their travel will be borne by the company this time

Those flying in from Iasi in Romania had their temperatures taken before boarding the flight where they were not allowed to sit next to one another.

There were no further medical checks when they arrived at Stansted, but G’s said there would be more checks after their arrival at the farm.

‘We have split them into household groups and they will work and mix exclusively with the other members of their household,’ said Miss Dixon.

‘We cannot afford them to get ill so we will be going to great lengths to maintain social distancing.

‘We have increased the stock of the onsite shops at the farm so they will not have to leave the site and are colour coding each household and restricting when they can go to communal areas.’

They said all workers would be paid at least the living wage – £8.72 per hour for those aged over 25, and the most efficient pickers could expect to earn up to £15-an-hour.

Their shared accommodation is provided and they are each charged just over £50-a-week to stay.

Their flight was organised by the Air Charter Service.

Their spokesman Glenn Phillips said: ‘This is the first and I am expecting there will be quite a few more.

‘We have already done 10 flights into Germany from Romania and one from Bulgaria.

‘DEFRA were looking to fill the gap of 90,000 workers who normally come and I understand after their appeal they are still looking for 70-80,000.’

It comes a day after the Government’s watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, today warned the economy could shrink by more than a third this quarter alone with two million people made jobless if the lockdown continues for two more months.

Shocking analysis from the OBR underlines the trade-offs being made to combat the deadly disease by putting the country into lockdown.

It warns curbs staying in place for three months will slash GDP by 35 per cent, with unemployment soaring to 10 per cent and the government’s deficit hitting £273billion – the highest level since the Second World War.

The watchdog ominously said it was assumed ‘for now’ there will not be any permanent economic damage, and much of the crash will be unwound as pent-up demand is unleashed when the lockdown finally ends. However, the resulting 13 per cent year-on-year drop will still be worse than anything in the last century.

Responding to the chilling scenario – which emerged as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted the worst global downturn since the Great Depression in 1929 – Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: ‘People should know there is hardship ahead.’

The apocalyptic figures emerged the day before Dominic Raab confirmed the lockdown restrictions will continue for ‘at least three more weeks.’