FARMERS and food and drink producers in the region are warning that a fall in numbers of migrant workers is threatening the stability of the £3.3 billion industry.

A new study published by Improve, the food and drink sector skills council, reports that 28 per cent of food and drink companies in the South West now employ workers from abroad, with an average of five employed per company.

But the report also found evidence that, after a period of rapid increase sparked by the admission of several eastern European countries to the EU in 2004, numbers of migrant workers are now falling, causing a headache for companies which rely on them as a labour source.

Half of those employers said low numbers of migrant workers would leave them with job vacancies, while just under a third said that it would lead to skills shortages and a drop in productivity.

Overall, 74.3 per cent of companies said employing migrant workers had a positive impact on their business.

The study suggests that the main reason for declining numbers of migrant workers was the improving economies of the so-called "A8" group of eastern European countries admitted to the EU in 2004.

This is reported to be particularly true of Poland, which accounts for half of all migrant workers employed in the UK food and drink industry.

Improve chief executive Jack Matthews said: "These findings will be of great concern to many people in the industry.

"The issue is that food and drink companies turn to migrant labour because they cannot find staff in the numbers they need at home.

"It is nothing to do with lower wages - fewer than two per cent of employers give that as a reason for taking on migrant workers.

"It also has little to do with migrant workers having better skills - in fact, around two-thirds of them end up working in elementary roles despite being well qualified, suggesting that, if anything, the food and drink industry isn't making the most of their talents."

It's a similar picture in the region's agricultural industry, although not as severe as in some other parts of the country, according to National Farmers Union regional spokesman Ian Johnson: "Dorset doesn't have quite the number of migrant workers as some other parts of the region but areas such as dairy farming do employ a significant number of workers from Eastern Europe, particular Poland, where people come from a farming background."

Mr Johnson said that farmers were finding difficulty in recruiting local workers as fewer people live in rural communities and those that do are either retired or unwilling to work in farming.