According to Peter Le Mestre, President of the Jersey Farmers Union, to solve the problem of a possible shortage of workers in the agricultural sector after Brexit, workers from Nepal can be involved as seasonal agricultural personnel.

Peter Le Mestre said that due to the uncertainties surrounding Brexit, discussions are ongoing with the authorities in an attempt to attract up to 130 Nepalese in Jersey to help solve agricultural problems as soon as the UK leaves the EU.

“We are close to concluding contracts with at least one, if not two, countries outside Europe to attract 130 people of seasonal agricultural personnel for 2020. Nepal is one such country, ”said Le Mestre.

At the same time, Le Mestre said, recruiting foreign workers is not such a simple matter: “There is a huge amount of bureaucracy to get people out of their country, and almost as much - if not more - to bring them here.”

Over the past two decades, Jersey has received most of its seasonal agricultural workers from Poland and other Eastern European countries.

In response to last year’s appeal from the Jersey Farmers Union for labor shortages caused by uncertainty about Brexit and Poland’s improving economy, the UK Home Office has changed its immigration policy to allow 130 additional seasonal workers to enter the island - with two trial periods of the year.