by Ismail Khwaja

Farmers have produced the "best tasting fruit so far this century" thanks to the hot summer but fear Brexit could derail the benefits of their work.

The chairman of the National Fruit Show, which takes place in Kent over the next two days, has warned this standard of quality cannot be sustained, unless they can find 80,000 fruit pickers from the beginning of April through to the end of November for the British fruit season.

It comes as almost 100 traders will be showing off and sharing their latest growing techniques at the event in Detling.

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Chairman Sarah Calcutt said: “Eighty-five years ago, some of the ancestors of the people who are still organising this show got together and thought they wanted to impress the buyer from Selfridges.

"So they packed their fruit in their best wicker bushel baskets and invited the buyer down to Marden.

“Then every year they had more growers join them, so more fruit went onto the display and more people came down from London markets from the big department stores to have a look at the fruit.”

The show consists of a 64 metre display of competition entries - the largest display of apples and pears in the world - and is expected to attract around 2,000 industry professionals.

“We’ve got 47 different varieties on there this year.

"It’s quite a rainbow because we have some bright yellow and some orange, then there’s obviously different shades of red in there, green and then a lovely display of pears and cooking apples too," she said Mrs Calcutt.

There will also be six varieties of strawberries and raspberries and four or five different walnut, almond and cobnut varieties on display.

“This is the best tasting fruit so far this century, so basically the best fruit in nearly 20 years," Mrs Calcutt.

“It is beautiful fruit. That incredibly hot summer has done absolute wonders for flavour.”

Besides the fruit, the latest cutting-edge technology is being demonstrated, including a driver-less tractor and a laser camera crop-estimation system, which is mounted on a quad-bike.

However, despite the success this year, it’s bitter-sweet for farmers as they are “all struggling through not enough people coming to work on farms”.

Consequently, the lack of fruit pickers has caused farmers to fall behind and fruit to become wasted.

Chairman Calcutt, added: “I know a lot of farms who have got behind because they haven’t had quite enough people this year, so they have left fruit behind in orchards.

“Or they have had to make a decision where they would usually go back to pick an orchard for a second time, they’re actually going to leave a third of the crop on the tree and move onto something else because with fewer people the job takes longer.”

When asked if the show will be overshadowed by worries over Brexit, Mrs Calcutt said: “I think it’s going to be the main topic of discussion.

"Everybody is extremely concerned about what will happen.

“A lot of people are stopping investing at the moment because they don’t know what the future will bring.

"So the Brexit process is having an enormous impact on Kent growers.

"We’re having a real struggle recruiting from local areas, so we are very reliant on eastern European labour and there is a lot of discussion about what will happen with our borders.

"The Brexit process is having an enormous impact on Kent growers" - Sarah Calcutt

"It’s a two-fold thing, so when the referendum voted to leave the EU, our currency was de-valued quite significantly by about 20%.

"So we’re not as attractive a place to work because the wages were de-valued by 20% because of currency change.

"There’s been a lot of press work around ‘we’re going to close the border, you’re not welcome’.

"One of the things that’s been amazing about people coming over from Eastern Europe is that we’ve had a lot of people with very good quality degrees and they are within a lot of middle and upper-management in a lot of fruit businesses in the county.

"So we’re not seeing the kind of person that aspires to a career in the British fruit industry coming over either, so it will have a long term impact."

The National Fruit Show will run from 10am to 5.30pm today and from 10am till 3.30m tomorrow at the Kent Event Centre.