Concerns over the acute shortage of labor on East British farms prompted urgent calls to protect the most important industry line for seasonal workers from Eastern Europe.

Uncertainty about how immigration policies after Brexit will affect food companies' access to summer pickers, packers, and processing staff have forced some of the largest fruit and vegetable producers to suspend their investment plans.

Former Minister of Agriculture George Eustis has filed a motion in Parliament that says agriculture and horticulture report "serious labor recruitment difficulties for the 2019 harvest, when fewer migrant workers return to the UK."

He said the government should increase the size of its pilot Seasonal Workers Scheme for 2019 from 2,500 to 10,000 seats and take immediate steps to turn the pilot project into a fully operational policy for 2020 with a minimum of 30,000 seats for citizens from non-member countries weight.

These calls were supported by the National Farmers Union, which called on its members to contact their members of parliament to convey to them the importance of foreign labor for manual work in the fields and factories.