As the weather heats up, the first teasing hints of summer appear and lockdown continues to extend, we’re all contending with what the upcoming warm months might look like. One industry having to recalibrate is farming, particularly the fruit and vegetable growers, with products that need to be picked by human hands. A global lockdown and travel restrictions have combined to create a significant shortage of farm workers for the British harvest season.

As difficult decisions surrounding furloughing and redundancies are made across every industry, British Summer Fruits, the organisation representing the UK berry industry, has pivoted its latest recruitment campaign to encourage people to pick fruit over the coming summer.

The aim is to appeal to many of the sectors hardest hit by the current crisis, including hospitality and tourism as well as students who perhaps will no longer be sitting exams, to try and fill the vacancies left by the many overseas workers who would ordinarily be employed in the UK, but who are, at the moment, unable to travel.

The national campaign was created by Red Brick Road and saw British Summer Fruits pivot their original idea to accommodate for the shifting circumstances within the industry. A week after receiving the brief, the agency had collected details from 82 farms up and down the country and designed and published a recruitment programme for redundant and furloughed workers.

The programme’s website also hosts an interactive map showing the locations of farms around the UK and jobs on offer, inviting people to pick fruit at farms across the country to support the UK seasonal harvest and supermarkets nationwide.

The campaign sees British Summer Fruits and Red Brick Road partner with the government, National Farmers Union and DEFRA to amplify the message and encourage more people to sign up to fill the vacancies. It is ongoing and designed to continue to support the UK berry industry and ensure that people still have access to fresh fruit.