AN INEFFICIENT SOCIETY

"Apple growers fear labour shortages could force them to leave fruit rotting on trees because of government restrictions on the number of foreign workers allowed into Britain as pickers. As harvesting of the earliest varieties gets underway, farmers are `extremely concerned` about attracting sufficient people to work through until the end of of the season in mid-October. ... "If we can't get the pickers, there is a grave danger that apples will be left on trees and over-mature. Frankly, by then it won't be worth the cost of picking them, so they will be left unpicked,` said Adrian Barlow, chief executive of English Apples and Pears, which represents 430 growers. `That would be an absolute tragedy and quite shocking at a time when there are reports of food shortages`." (Observer, 24 August) RD