Thirty thousand Transylvanian seasonal workers are missing – Recently fired people can harvest Hungarian vegetables and fruits

A total of 25,000-30,000 foreign seasonal workers, mainly from Transylvania, may be missing from Hungarian farms at this year's harvest due to the coronavirus pandemic. The season-opening asparagus harvest would require an extra workforce of 2-3 thousand people within days. The sector is considering the possibility of hiring workers who became redundant elsewhere for seasonal agricultural work.

The coronavirus pandemic has thoroughly upset the labour market situation that has developed over the years in Hungarian horticulture.

The austerity measures taken to curb the epidemic currently prevent or at least significantly restrict the employment of foreign guest workers in seasonal harvesting work.

According to sector-specific statistics, 25-30 thousand guest workers are generally employed in Hungarian farms on a seasonal basis, most of whom come from Transylvania and Transcarpathia.

Currently, however, it causes fundamental concern that a great part of seasonal labourers are unable to cross country borders due to lockdown measures affecting passenger traffic.

Guest workers would be needed first for the collection of early asparagus grown in plastic tunnels, the harvest of which is due to begin within days.

The asparagus harvest would require 2-3 thousand seasonal workers, while the strawberry season starting in the second half of April will further increase the need for short-term labourers.

And by the middle of May, when harvesting will have begun for most horticultural products, labour shortages can become a common problem if no interim measures are taken by then.

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has recently announced that a Hungarian-Romanian agreement has been reached allowing commuting for work from within 30 kilometres of the country border again, though this does not provide a reassuring solution for more distant farms.

Due to the pandemic, FruitVeB, the Hungarian Fruit and Vegetable Organization and Product Board, which incorporates market participants, has set up an emergency group, which also monitors the situation related to the labour shortage in the sector.

The issue is also addressed by the Operational Unit responsible for the protection against the coronavirus pandemic, which is also considering possible measures due to labour concerns.

According to industry sources, in the current situation the best solution would be to replace the missing foreign labour with Hungarian workers. István Jakab, president of the Association of Hungarian Farmers' Clubs and Farmers' Cooperatives (Magosz), the largest Hungarian agricultural trade association, also made a similar statement. He also suggested that public work programs should be reviewed in order to redeploy workforce.

Potentially, there is available domestic workforce to ease the labour problem in farming, as tens of thousands have already lost their jobs in other sectors due to the covid-19, and still further layoffs are likely.

Thus, some farms are now employing workers who have dropped out of tourism, hospitality and other service sectors, instead of foreign seasonal workers.

Today, out of necessity, business owners are also ready to train new workers with no agricultural experience. And people who are not found suitable for harvesting work may be used in other areas, such as sorting and packaging.

At sectoral level, however, it may be a question how larger numbers of workers from more distant settlements can be transferred to the fields if the existing curfew and travel restrictions remain in place in the long term.

The idea of offering jobless people who have recently been furloughed or dismissed temporary agricultural employment does not only come up in Hungary. For example, the French Minister of Agriculture recently asked unemployed workers there to “go out to the fields” as seasonal workers.

The British government would even be prepared to send charter planes to Eastern Europe to reduce labour shortages in agriculture. According to some reports, a similar solution is being considered by Germany, where 80,000 guest workers would be needed just to pick up asparagus in the spring.

In Hungarian farms, however, it is not only the difficulties of harvesting crops that cause concern, but also sales opportunities. Although there are also transportation problems in the sector, the situation is alleviated by the fact that the Operational Unit has stated that drivers do not have to go through a 14-day mandatory official home quarantine if they do not display symptoms of the infection and they meet several other conditions.

However, according to FruitVeB, the provisions are interpreted differently in different municipalities. Some municipalities continue to require drivers returning from abroad to be quarantined for two weeks by local regulations, and drivers are also afraid that they may be quarantined abroad.
Another problem is that border traffic is rather slow, thus reducing the volume of imported vegetables and fruits, but transport restrictions also make exports more difficult. According to FruitVeB, the trade of domestic products in the wholesale market is uninterrupted even in the current pandemic situation, and companies can supply the population with sufficient vegetables and fruits in spite of the decrease in imports.