Kent’s fruit growers are pressing the Government to stop planned changes to immigration rules or risk home-grown strawberries for Wimbledon becoming a thing of the past.

For years, the strawberry and apple growers in the county have relied on overseas students to help plant and harvest their crops.

But now changes to Britain’s immigration rules, including the use of seasonal workers, threaten to choke that supply.

"For many years we’ve used students from countries like Poland to cope with our seasonal labour demands," said Robert Mitchell, an apple and pear grower from Sevenoaks. "Now the supply from those countries is drying up."

Polish students are increasingly opting for higher paid work in supermarkets or switching to other parts of Europe with easier work and better weather. Because they are from the EU, they can work freely anywhere in Europe.

Students from Romania and Bulgaria are still happy to pick Kent crops, but, unlike other nationals from the EU, they must apply for work permits which they are allowed to do through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS).

But in 2010 SAWS will be replaced with a so-called points system. Growers like Robert Mitchell fear low-skilled seasonal workers will be excluded.

"The Government says there are sufficient workers within the EU to meet our needs, we don’t believe them," he said.

"There are not sufficient numbers of quality people to harvest our crops. We want the Government to keep SAWS or incorporate it into their new points scheme, and extend it to include students from outside the EU - such as Russia, Moldova and Ukraine."

Mr Mitchell is also chairman of Concordia, a charity which matches overseas students looking for seasonal work with UK growers.

His fears are echoed by Marion Regan from Hugh Lowe Farms in Mereworth near Maidstone, which supplies Wimbledon with its strawberries, as well as hundreds of supermarkets.

"We need seasonal workers," she said. "Some 67 per cent of growers say their production has been hit by the labour shortage. We need the Government to extend the existing seasonal migrant labour scheme."