17:20 Thursday 25th August 2011
Drivetime BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
ANDY BURROWS: The latest official figures show there’s been a significant increase in net migration. That’s the difference between the number of people coming to live in the UK, and the number emigrating. The figure was 239,000 last year, a rise of nearly 21% on 2009. Victor Aveling is an asparagus farmer from Cambridgeshire, and he explains why he relies on migrant labour. (TAPE)
VICTOR AVELING: I used to employ all British people, and we had a lot of ladies from the local town picking strawberries and that sort of thing. Over the years it got more and more difficult to recruit. People did not seem to be available to do that work. You would find that people would come and they would work for a day or half a day. That’s enough for them. It’s too hard.
ANDY BURROWS: We know plenty of the arguments don’t we here in Cambridgeshire. That was Victor Aveling, an asparagus farmer speaking to the BBC today.
Victor Aveling is Chairman of the Asparagus Growers Association, and President of the N.E.Cambridgeshire Conservative Association.
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