A senior figure in a major rural group has said the Government must make access to foreign fruit pickers a priority in early Brexit negotiations to reduce uncertainty about food supply.

Emeritus Professor Allan Buckwell, chairman of the Kent branch of the CLA, which represents 800 landowners and farmers in the county, said getting seasonal and casual labour during the harvest season is a “major issue” for local firms.

Food production has the highest proportion of migrant workers in the UK at 41%, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Clarity on plans for access to foreign-born labour was one of three Brexit challenges outlined by Prof Buckwell, also including creating a new policy for food and clarifying the trading relationship between the UK and the EU.

He said his three Brexit challenges are “mammoth tasks”.

Regarding access to foreign seasonal labour, he said: “The CLA is calling on Government to commit to establishing sector-based schemes, such as a seasonal agricultural workers scheme, post Brexit.

“This would enable people to enter the UK for a specific job, for a defined period, without the right to remain afterwards.

“There should be few principled objections to this and it would enormously help reduce uncertainty for our farmers if this aim could be stated early in the negotiating process.”

The words echo comments he made in January last year, when he said leaving the EU was the most “strategically important question facing rural areas since the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846”.

Prof Buckwell, who lives in Whitstable and is a former professor at Wye College, also attacked laws on compulsory purchase of land by the Government for use in strategically important infrastructure projects.

During 2017, a number of Kent farmers and landowners will be affected by the possible go-ahead of a Lower Thames Crossing, the Richborough Connection and a lorry park adjacent to the M20 for Operation Stack.

Prof Buckwell said: “There remains a vital need to reform the antiquated compulsory purchase laws to deliver fairness and certainty to those affected and the CLA will be discussing this at a debate in Kent in March.”