Worker Shortages Problematic for Italian Farms as Harvest Nears

The short­age of for­eign agri­cul­tural work­ers has many farm­ers, wine and olive oil pro­duc­ers wor­ried ahead of the 2020 har­vest in Italy.

In cer­tain areas, includ­ing the olive-pro­duc­ing dis­trict of Belice, Sicily, farm­ers are strug­gling to recruit the 4,000 for­eign work­ers usu­ally required to har­vest almost 18,000 hectares (44,500 thou­sand acres) of olive groves.

Ninety per­cent of those work­ers are cur­rently unavail­able as the har­vest rapidly approaches. Some experts fear that many apples, grapes and olives may not be col­lected as a result.

Most observers attribute the labor short­age to the Covid-19 con­tain­ment mea­sures, which con­tinue to hin­der inter­na­tional travel. Workers com­ing from red-listed coun­tries can­not freely move to Italy for the har­vest. Others must first undergo com­plex pro­ce­dures that have so far kept the num­bers of incom­ing work­ers to a his­toric low.

On top of the labor short­age, the Italian gov­ern­ment is also try­ing to crack down on ille­gal employ­ment in the agri­cul­tural sec­tor.

While the process has slowed down the entrance of for­eign farm work­ers to the coun­try, the gov­ern­ment argues that it is espe­cially nec­es­sary, given the cur­rency health cri­sis, to ensure a safe work­place for sea­sonal farm work­ers.

In recent weeks, more than 200,000 work­ers have filed for work autho­riza­tion from the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.

“All of them now have a reg­u­lar work per­mit, includ­ing 13,000 for­eign cit­i­zens, who can now count on a legal green card,” Italian agri­cul­ture min­is­ter, Teresa Bellanova, said.

She added that the min­istry is also about to release a dig­i­tal net­work that helps work­ers find avail­able jobs and assists in arrang­ing trans­port.

While new funds have been directed to oil mills and olive oil pro­duc­ers hit by Xylella fas­tidiosa in the region of Puglia, the short­age and well­be­ing of sea­sonal work­ers is also a rel­e­vant issue for many local author­i­ties.

In the olive-pro­duc­ing dis­trict of Terlizzi, not far from Bari, the munic­i­pal coun­cil is offi­cially con­sid­er­ing a new approach to accom­mo­date migrant work­ers. City coun­cil­man Vito D’Amato empha­sized how ​“most work­ers dur­ing the har­vest sea­son end up liv­ing in spon­ta­neous set­tle­ments, ghet­tos or tents in com­plete iso­la­tion.”

“[The pan­demic] has high­lighted their cru­cial role in agri­cul­ture,” he added. ​“It is of the utmost impor­tance to rec­og­nize that role with safe­guards and real action.”

The migrant work­ers and the safety mea­sures are also the core of a heated debate in Belice.

Franco Lombardo, head of the local olive trans­for­ma­tion com­pany Geolive, told the CastelVetrano news mag­a­zine that tons of olives, includ­ing the famous Nocellara del Belice, are at risk of rot­ting on the trees.

The same wor­ries were echoed by Felice Crescente, head of the local agri­cul­tural labor inspec­tor agency, who explained that the labor short­age ​“involves the whole of Italy and lots of dif­fer­ent prod­ucts, from toma­toes to olives.” She added that the issue should be ​“strate­gi­cally addressed since it involves not only migrant work­ers but also sea­sonal [Italian] work­ers.”

However, some pro­duc­ers believe that the focus on accom­mo­dat­ing for­eign farm work­ers is more so treat­ing the symp­toms than solv­ing the under­ly­ing prob­lems.

The head of a coop­er­a­tive of agri­cul­tural work­ers in cen­tral Italy argued that if wages were higher, fewer migrant work­ers would be needed and those that did come would find bet­ter liv­ing con­di­tions.

“I am not sure we are tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion the har­vest­ing costs in the new sce­nario,” Graziano Giovane told Olive Oil Times. ​“Low or very low pay is one of the main his­tor­i­cal rea­sons that keep Italian and other work­ers away from the fields, as well as the liv­ing con­di­tions many have to face dur­ing the sea­son, espe­cially if they come from abroad dur­ing this health emer­gency.”

“If we con­sider olive har­vest­ing, for instance, I won­der how much farm­ers and pro­duc­ers are able to pay work­ers now that mar­ket prices are low,” he added. “[These same pro­duc­ers are also being] asked to be more effi­cient in order to ensure a safe work­place. We need a broader vision to win this bat­tle.”

The farm­ing asso­ci­a­tion, Coldiretti, has also asked for the adop­tion of a new nation­wide strat­egy for agri­cul­tural work­ers com­ing from abroad. The asso­ci­a­tion has lob­bied for quick coro­n­avirus test­ing oper­a­tions on arrival for all migrant work­ers in order to let them imme­di­ately reach their des­ti­na­tions.

In one of the most rel­e­vant wine pro­duc­ing dis­tricts in Italy, Veneto, local author­i­ties, farm­ers and work­ers asso­ci­a­tions have just set up a new unit to quickly screen work­ers for Covid-19.

Francesco Benazzi, head of the local pub­lic health office in Treviso, told local media that ​“start­ing this week, we are ready to make the tests avail­able to all agri­cul­tural coop­er­a­tives that employ work­ers com­ing from abroad.”

Given the num­bers involved, the pres­i­dent of Piedmont, Alberto Cirio, has alerted local author­i­ties in order to ensure a coor­di­nated effort in mon­i­tor­ing the flow of sea­sonal work­ers com­ing from abroad, specif­i­cally from Covid-19-hit east­ern European coun­tries.

“The har­vest­ing sea­son approaches and regional farm­ers will need for­eign work­ers,” Cirio said. ​“Some coun­tries where they come from, though, are con­sid­ered high-risk due to the pan­demic. We all need to work together to mon­i­tor and quickly iden­tify any risk.”

Coldiretti asked for action because work­ers are needed now in north­ern Italy for the apple har­vest. Shortly after­wards it will be time to har­vest wine grapes in the rest of the coun­try.

Once all the apples and grapes have been picked, the olive har­vest will be in full motion.

• Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry
• Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry
• Coldiretti