The Irish Times reported at the start of August that there were five clusters or outbreaks of Covid-19 identified among fruit and vegetable producers in Ireland.
Producers have also been struggling to secure sufficient labour for the ongoing 2020 harvest.
There wasn’t much other data provided on the outbreaks. Labour shortages were affecting the horticultural and agricultural sectors even before the pandemic arrived to throw a spanner in the works.
Many employers especially in the fruit and mushroom sectors have been using the Help2Harvest scheme run through Teagasc to help with recruitment in this difficult time.
