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It is time to harvest in Europe. Those closest to being picked include cherries, strawberries, and raspberries. Or planting leeks, as in the Finland report by Anna-Lena Laurén and Niklas Meltio.
The risk is imminent that much of these crops will be destroyed this summer.
Hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers, mainly from the poorer parts of Eastern Europe, but also North Africa, cannot, during the prevailing pandemic and closed borders, reach the jobs from which the continent’s food production is has become completely dependent.
Poland is a telling example: before the Corona pandemic, there were between 1.5 and 2 million Ukrainians in the country, who worked mainly in agriculture, but also in the construction industry and in Polish households.
Then in early March A large part of them, without knowing how many, went home to Ukraine. The consequences are negative for the economies of Poland and Ukraine. Labor shortage in one place, unemployment in another. Many tasks are not performed. Often guest workers return to unemployment and a significantly lower standard of living.
The fact that many Ukrainians have a residence permit in Poland is not a consolation when the Polish-Ukrainian border is closed. Otherwise, 160,000 Ukrainians cross the border every month. One small consolation is that the Polish Consulate in Kiev began issuing special work visas for Ukrainians last week, according to a model from Germany and the United Kingdom. And for those who manage to cross the border, a 14-day quarantine awaits them. So they are not allowed to work and therefore do not receive a salary.
It appears that some of the vacant jobs are being filled by unemployed Poles who had previously worked in the now closed hotel and restaurant industry. But they are not mainly doing heavy agricultural work, but looking for the transport sector and taxi services like Uber.
That’s not enoughEspecially since many farmers in countries like France, Germany and Poland have been forced to note that foreign seasonal workers are difficult to replace with inexperienced domestic labor (or in other words: they don’t want to accept more than 10-12 hours).
In the UK, the authorities have asked unemployed Britons to harvest fruit, but most of them refused to work in agriculture. Working and living conditions, as well as wages, have been too poor. Instead, the workers are brought from Romania with charter flights.
It was also influential Romanians – 40,000 in April – who “rescued” the widely mentioned German asparagus crop. The Germans who were prepared to harvest asparagus seemed unable to grab them.
Filling the gaps After the migrant workers in food production is obviously a challenge. The solution? It is likely to quickly facilitate foreign workers to return to the jobs they were doing before the pandemic.
The extent to which seasonal seasonal workers received reasonable protection against the coronavirus is uncertain. Ramona Duminicioiu, who represents the Romanian peasant organization Eco Ruralis, told Politico: “When temporary workers start to die, who should be held accountable?”
And he added: “I do not know if the EU is ready to renounce a development model based on the work of the poor.”
Read more: Corona virus forced Finns to return to the field
