A plane with 150 skilled Romanian fruit and vegetable pickers onboard landed in London last night to save Britain's harvest.
The workers have been flown in to help to harvest farmers' crops because not enough Brits want to do the back-breaking job.
All were tested for the coronavirus before they left and again when they arrived at London's Stansted Airport.
This particular group will be picking lettuces at a 7,000 hectare farm in East Anglia, with the harvest season due to start on Monday.
Firms are desperate for more staff but say they have to fly people in from abroad or the crops will rot.
For updates on coronavirus, follow our live blog HERE.
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) claims that travel restrictions and illness is set to leave a shortage of up to 80,000 agricultural workers across the UK.
The CLA said while some of those posts will be filled by British workers, the CLA said it was "almost impossible for farmers to access the labour they need".
A CLA spokesman said: “We are encouraging as many people as possible to take part in seasonal working opportunities”.
They added: “We know the demand for seasonal agricultural workers will rise in the months ahead, which is why we are working hard with industry to ensure farmers and growers have the support they need ahead of this time.”
One of the UK's biggest fresh food producers, G's Fresh, based in Cambridgeshire, confirmed it chartered yesterday's flight.
Beverly Dixon, group HR director said: “These guys usually drive or come by easyJet but we just needed to get them here.
“They are highly skilled. That’s why we chartered the plane.
“60 percent of our staff this year will be British.”
Worker Sorinel Balan, 49, said: "We hope we will be able to work and not be put in quarantine. If that was the case I would have rather stayed home. We are not afraid of going.
"If we are meant to die, we will die in Romania as well. We have to find work as everything here is closed."
Brighton-based Concordia, one of the biggest recruiters of volunteer workers in the country, said it had 35,000 applications of interest after the original appeal for Brits to work on farms.
While the response was significant, it said only 16% – 5,500 people – opted to interview for a role, leaving a gap between supply and demand for pickers.
Surrey based firm Air Charter Service – the world's biggest charter airline - is now laying on several special flights to bring workers to the UK.
Matt Purton, the company's Head of Commercial Aviation, said: "There is still a need for people from eastern Europe to come to do that work.
"It's impossible to get here by normal means."
