By The United Kingdom government has officially extended its Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme for another five years, allowing farmers and food producers to continue hiring foreign workers for short-term contracts.
As part of the extension, 45,000 visas will be issued annually. 43,000 of these are allocated for horticulture jobs like fruit and vegetable picking, while 2,000 are set aside for poultry processing and similar roles.
The visas will be available from October 2nd to December 31st each year, and only workers employed by approved scheme operators will qualify.
Under the new rules, seasonal workers can now stay in the UK for up to six months, offering employers more flexibility to manage peak seasons.
Originally planned to end in 2021, the scheme was previously extended to 2024 after intense lobbying from the National Farmers Union (NFU), citing severe labour shortages.
The latest extension to 2029 provides long-term certainty to the UK’s agriculture sector, which has relied heavily on seasonal foreign labour to keep farms running and supply chains stable.
