This is a busy time for Scotland's soft fruit growers as they pick and market their crops. Apart from the weather, labour costs and availability are their biggest challenges.

The industry has changed dramatically over the last 35 years or so when most of the fruit was destined to be processed into jam or juice. Growers used to arrange for special buses to collect fruit pickers from the likes of Dundee and Fife, until machine harvesting started to be developed. Sadly, about that time the industry came under pressure from cheap imports from Eastern Europe and the area of fruit grown declined dramatically.

More recently there has been a move to growing soft fruit in polytunnels. They give higher yields per hectare, of consistently better quality fruit, that command premium prices from retailers compared to those processors are prepared to pay.

With the industry becoming more intensive, the area of strawberries and raspberries grown in Scotland has shrunk to about a fifth of that in the early eighties.

All Scottish strawberries are now hand-picked, with around 90 per cent going to the fresh market and the rest to processing. At one time 80 per cent of the raspberry crop was made into jam, but nowadays between 85 and 90 per cent end up being sold on the premium fresh fruit market after being hand-picked, with the balance processed.

While blueberries, gooseberries and currants are also hand-picked for the fresh market, almost all blackcurrants are mechanically harvested and processed into juice.

Although buses no longer collect fruit pickers, the industry still employs large numbers of seasonal workers - Scottish horticulture employs around 15,000 to harvest and pack the produce - and most of them come from Eastern Europe to live in static caravans provided by the growers. That allows flexibility of working hours for the pickers.

Sometimes fruit has to be picked very early in the morning to supply orders from supermarkets. Then again, it may become too hot during the day to work, and picking may have to take place in early morning or evening - so workers need to live on the farm.

This year fewer migrant workers were prepared to come to Scotland, partly as a result of a perceived rise in racism since the UK vote to leave the EU, as well as scare stories in some quarters of the Eastern European press. The main reason there are at least 5 per cent fewer migrant workers available this year compared to last year, is that the drop in the value of the pound means they are effectively being paid around 10 per cent less. That has left the reduced workforce having to work overtime to get through the workload.

Problems harvesting soft fruit are not new, nor are they confined to Scotland. Mechanical harvesting machines have come a long way over the years, but still yield damaged fruit that is unsuitable for discerning retail outlets. Technology however, may offer hope from a different direction.

The horticultural industry is on the brink of enjoying major developments in robots that could take the hard work and drudgery out of harvesting fruit and vegetables by hand.

Researchers are using their knowledge of soft robotics to create deformable manipulators, or "hands", that can manipulate "fragile" produce, such as broccoli, strawberries and mushrooms. Currently, UK researchers are working on a harvesting robot that can handle and cut iceberg lettuces with the same handling care as human harvesters.

Plant breeders have also put a lot of effort into developing varieties which help improve the ease and efficiency of hand-picking - from raspberries that don't crumble, to canes that are less thorny.

Now AHDB (Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board) has launched a campaign to encourage the adoption of "lean principles" into horticultural businesses to help improve labour efficiencies in production.

As part of the first stage of the programme, a series of case studies is underway with lean consultants, MPL Ltd, visiting businesses to identify where there is scope to improve.

A broader survey has also been sent to growers over the summer to understand labour efficiency potential within a range of businesses to help paint a picture of the wider industry. Regional lean workshops are then planned for autumn 2017 and spring 2018 to share the results.

Debbie Wilson, knowledge exchange manager at AHDB, said: "Automation and robotics may offer longer-term solutions, but with increased pressures from rising labour costs due to the National Living Wage and concerns about availability of labour following the Brexit decision, many growers are looking for solutions to help with their labour costs now."