A FARMING boss said his firm had spent £40,000 to fly 150 experienced Romanian workers to the UK to teach unskilled Brit fruit and vegetable workers how to harvest.
Anthony Gardiner, marketing director at G's, said travel restrictions imposed as a result of the coronavirus crisis meant he was not able to recruit skilled seasonal workers from countries such as Romania and Bulgaria.
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The company, which has its head office near Ely in Cambridgeshire, launched its Feed Our Nation campaign earlier this month in a bid to recruit more workers from the UK.
It is trying to fill more than 2,500 vacancies, offering more than £400 per week.
The firm chartered a Titan Airways AirBus 320 flight to bring a team of "critically important" pickers to the UK, which landed at Stansted Airport yesterday.
Mr Gardiner said the Romanian workers were desperately needed to help the firm's 500 recently recruited UK workers get "up to speed" and "comply with food and hygiene standards".
He told the Daily Mail: "You have got to have some people who are experienced and know what they are doing.
"They will help bring the newcomers up to pace. The last time we had a majority of British people picking in the fields was at the very end of the 1980s.
"Our hope is that this year we will have two-thirds of our workforce from Britain but you need an experienced core for the newcomers to learn from. It is not just picking.
"You need knowledge of food safety to do it properly."
G's describes itself as one of Europe's leading fresh produce companies and produces celery and lettuce for major retailers.
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According to the British Growers Association, 70,000 seasonal staff a year are needed.
So far, more than 32,000 people have signed up – but only around 4,000 have actually opted to interview for a role.
Earlier this month, Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger called for the creation of a new Land Army to help alleviate the problems.
In the Second World War, 80,000 women joined the Land Army to help cover labour shortages in agriculture.
Last week experts warned the UK is facing a potential disaster with as much as 3.8million tons of produce set to be dumped.
Unless the country can mobilise to "pick for victory" we are facing losing 170 million apples, 13.2 million pears, 12.4 million plums and 288 million cherries.
Up to 1.5 billion raspberries, 4 billion strawberries and 5.2 billion blackcurrants could also go.
The closure of chip shops due to the coronavirus lockdown has created a surplus of 188,576 tons of potatoes worth £45.3million.
Rhubarb farmer Janet Oldroyd-Hulme, of West Yorks, said: "We won't need our foreign workers if the English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh all look to their local farms to help there.
"Otherwise there will be fruit and vegetables that will rot."
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The Government has said furloughed workers are free to sign up for land work — and urged them to find recruiting agencies.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said: "We need to mobilise the British workforce.
"I would encourage as many people as possible to sign up."
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