Wimbledon may be bereft of strawberries and cream this summer

Britains traditional summer pudding of strawberries and cream maybe missing at this years Wimbledon tennis championships, after the National Farmers Union (NFU) expressed fears that strawberries, raspberries and seasonal salad crops could be left to rot in the fields because of a shortage of EU workers travelling to the UK for harvesting jobs.

London, May 29 : Britain's traditional summer pudding of strawberries and cream maybe missing at this year's Wimbledon tennis championships, after the National Farmers' Union (NFU) expressed fears that strawberries, raspberries and seasonal salad crops could be left to rot in the fields because of a shortage of EU workers travelling to the UK for harvesting jobs.

"There is a potential for crops to be left unharvested. I do not want to scaremonger but our real concern is that the harvest is going to be left in the field which will mean there will be less British produce in the supermarket," The Sun quoted Chief Horticultural Advisor Philip Hudson, as saying.

Hudson said some 13 growers of soft fruit and salad vegetables were facing a 2,400 shortfall on the 4,400 workers needed.

Poles and other eastern Europeans were now less interested in coming to Britain, Hudson said, but added that British farmers would work hard to ensure there was no food shortage.

The NFU says it wants an "urgent increase" in the number of Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme permits issued to combat the problem in the short-term.

ANI