Harvest season is one of the busiest times of the year for vineyards, and 2026 is now well and truly underway.
For Recruitment South East, that means months of planning have turned into early starts, vineyard check-ins and hundreds of seasonal workers heading out into the fields to help bring in this year's grapes.
The first harvest teams were being welcomed from 6am as the season got underway, with the coming weeks expected to be particularly busy.
A successful grape harvest needs far more than simply finding people who are available to pick.
Vineyards may suddenly need sizeable teams of reliable seasonal workers, often working in rural locations and with start dates influenced by weather conditions and when the grapes are ready.
That makes flexibility and preparation particularly important.
Recruitment South East works with vineyards to help organise the people needed for harvest season, taking much of the recruitment administration away from the vineyard team.
Seeing months of recruiting and organising finally turn into workers arriving amongst the vines is one of the most rewarding parts of the season for the RSE team.
Although grape picking creates one of the biggest recruitment demands of the year, vineyards need additional people at different stages throughout the growing cycle.
Recruitment South East has more than a decade of experience working with vineyards and can help recruit seasonal workers for jobs including:
Whether a vineyard needs a small number of additional workers or a much larger seasonal team, having an experienced recruitment partner can make managing those peaks considerably easier.
Recruitment South East can also manage the associated recruitment paperwork, including GLAA and PAYE compliance, helping vineyard teams concentrate on running the vineyard rather than dealing with another layer of administration.
With harvest requirements capable of changing according to weather, ripening and workload, having an established pool of seasonal workers and an experienced recruitment team behind the process can be particularly valuable.
Harvest 2026 may be underway, but vineyard recruitment continues throughout the seasons.
If you operate a vineyard and need additional people for grape picking, pruning, vineyard maintenance, bottling, production or another seasonal requirement, speak to Recruitment South East about the support available.
Call 01580 234800 or contact Recruitment South East through their thebestof Eastbourne feature page.
