Results of migrant labour survey completed for the NI agricultural sector.
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs has released the report, ‘Migrant Labour in NI Agriculture’. The Migrant Labour in NI Agriculture report presents survey results for the agricultural sector on migrant labour including non-seasonal and seasonal workers plus country of origin information. The statistics are compiled from a survey of farm businesses completed in November 2017.
Some of the report’s key findings:
*xa0 On 1st November 2017, an estimated 1,404 non-seasonal and seasonal workers from outside the UK and Ireland were employed in agriculture in Northern Ireland.
*xa0 Using June Agricultural Census employment figures, the 1,404 migrant workers equate to 20 per cent of the paid agricultural workforce.
*xa0 Almost all the responses from farm businesses with migrant labour stated that migrant labour was important to their business.
*xa0 Horticultural farms were the most likely farm type to employ migrant labour with approximately
*xa0 70 per cent of the estimated migrant labour used on these farms.
*xa0 Thirty-two per cent of non-seasonal migrant workers present on 1st November 2017 were from
*xa0 Bulgaria with 28 per cent from Lithuania and 16 per cent from Poland.
The full report on migrant labour in the NI agricultural sector can be downloaded free of charge from the DAERA website at:
www.daera-ni.gov.uk/
