A year since Brexit: English winemakers get creative to beat 'nightmare' labour shortages
It wasn't just the wettest summer in decades and biting spring frosts that England's burgeoning sparkling wine industry had to deal with this year.
Brexit has also cast a long shadow, whether it's labour shortages, missing shipments or bureaucratic headaches.
The lack of staff has hit hard: winemakers say for the first time they have struggled to find enough pickers for harvest.
Compounded by COVID restrictions, Brexit has led to a “sizable” reduction in the number of migrant labourers coming to England to pick grapes, according to Julia Trustram Eve, head of marketing at trade association WineGB.
“It was the perfect storm,” she said. “Inevitably, an awful lot of migrant workers went back because of COVID, but they didn't return.”
Dermot Sugrue,
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