When it comes to picking red fruits, producers in Haute-Loire are also seriously lacking in labor. To remedy the shortage of seasonal workers, some farms no longer hesitate to call on foreign workers.
In the department, nearly 650 seasonal contracts are signed in the area of red fruit picking. To remedy the lack of labor, at least half of the pickers are foreigners, mainly from Eastern countries. A context identical to last year for the producers of the GIE (Economic Interest Group) of the Monts du Velay, who grow all small red fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, blackberry and blueberry, from June to the end of September.
Ukrainians, mainly
“Our big difficulty is finding motivated and reliable seasonal workers. Some young people think it’s an easy job, that it’s like a vacation and that they’ll be able to have fun. But this is not the case. They are often young people aged 16 to 20 who want to work for only a few weeks and then go on vacation with their parents or friends. It is impossible to find French workers for four months on the farms. We hire a lot of Ukrainians. It’s a workforce that’s fairly easy to find. If they were not there, it would frankly be very complicated to complete the harvests,” confides Denis Chirouze, the director of the GIE Red Fruits of Monts du Velay.
In general, these seasonal workers are paid on performance with a legal obligation for employers to reach at least the minimum wage threshold.
Christophe Coffy
#French
