Mother’s Day is the most important date in the calendar for Britain’s daffodil growers, but it arrives today with much of their crop still in the ground thanks to a shortage of pickers.
Brexit uncertainty and the fall in the value of the pound have left growers struggling to recruit enough migrant workers for the harvest season, which runs from January to April. Lee Abbey of the National Farmers’ Union said an increasing number of members said crops were going unharvested — a blow to the £45m-a-year industry.
“A large proportion of our crop has gone unpicked,” said Jeremy Hosking, who grows 180 acres of daffodils on his farm near Truro, Cornwall.