The United Kingdom government has announced the extension of the seasonal worker visa route for an additional five years, until 2029, to combat labour shortages in the food supply chain.
According to a statement from the government, 43,000 visas will be allocated to the horticulture sector in 2025, along with an additional 2,000 visas for the poultry industry, VisaGuide.World reports.
Further details on the number of visas available from 2026 to 2029 will be disclosed later this year, as confirmed by the government.
As a response to John Shropshire’s Independent Review into Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain, the government will implement several measures to help the industry, among them more than 50 million of further funding for new technology and creating a comprehensive strategy to enhance skills provision and attract domestic workers.
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Environment Secretary Steve Barclay said that the UK has a world-class food and drink industry and the new changes will contribute to this by increasing funding for the cutting-edge technology that will lead to reducing reliance on migrant labor in the long term.
Businesses do best when they can plan effectively for the future, which is why we’ve extended the seasonal worker visa route until 2029 to give farmers and growers the certainty they need to thrive.
UK to Improve Attractiveness for Domestic Workers
Through a statement, the government of the UK unfolded plans to improve the attractiveness of the industry for domestic workers.
The new changes include collaborating with the Food and Drink Sector Council’s Attractiveness Project Group, providing seed funding to establish the Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH) and working with the Department for Work and Pensions to deliver regional recruitment plans that use its Jobcentre Plus network to provide jobseekers with the skills and knowledge they need.
UK Government Minister for Scotland John Lamont said that the package of agriculture initiatives would help ensure long-term certainty for labor needs in order to make the UK food supply chain the most cutting-edge in worldwide countries.
The extension of the seasonal worker visa route until 2029 is welcome news for Scotland’s growers and producers. While we will always support homegrown labor, we appreciate that the industry is still in need of extra help.
Earlier this year, Britain introduced several new measures in order to reduce low-paid foreign labor and also reduce the number of migrants, thus attempting to put British workers first.
