The leading national producer with 15,000 tonnes of strawberries per year, Lot-et-Garonne was hit hard by the Covid-19 epidemic. The ciflorette and the gariguette (the flagship variety) are ready to be picked, but a week before the peak in production, the 360 millers in the department are not sure whether they have the 6,000 seasonal agricultural workers needed to pick them.
These often foreign workers come mainly "from Spain, Portugal, Morocco or Poland", explains Philippe Blouin president of the Interprofessional Association of Fruits and Vegetables of Lot-et-Garonne (AIFLG). “Today about half are missing, or 3,000 seasonal workers due to the closure of the borders with these countries. Producers who did not bring agricultural workers from abroad early enough are in trouble. ”
Patrick Jouy, strawberry farmer in Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot, north of Agen, produces 400 tonnes of strawberries per year on eight hectares, mainly ciflorette: “last week we had to have 30 people arriving. They are blocked at the Polish and Romanian borders. We also had to have a team of Moroccan workers who was to arrive soon. They are also blocked. To date we are only 40% of the workforce. "
"The minister's speech must be relayed locally"
Solidarity is organized. The Chamber of Agriculture has created an "agricultural job exchange", whose "objective is to put farmers in contact with workers who are available to lend them to others who have labor needs." artwork. With the benevolence of the State services ”, explains Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, the president of the chamber
Local labor is also sought by the strawberry industry, as recommended on Tuesday by the Minister of Agriculture Didier Guillaume who asked "men and women who no longer have any activity (…) to join French agriculture ”. "It's a good thing," said Philippe Blouin. We must all stand together in the face of this labor shortage problem. The minister's speech must be relayed locally. Harvesting is essential to avoid the bankruptcy of certain operations, ”he says.
However, this is not the ideal solution for Patrick Jouy: “we were able to recruit around twenty new people at the start of the week, self-employed people, craftsmen, job seekers, but it is not sad! Today there are fewer and fewer sons of farmers and they do not know the trade. We have a jurisdictional problem and some after two days are tired. "
"Ten years to recover from it"
For him the main problem is not that of labor, but rather the lack of outlets for its production. “Large retailers no longer buy our production from us, they are afraid of losing it because of containment measures because the strawberry does not keep long. In recent days we haven't sold anything. "
Our file on the Covid-19
"The coup de grace was the Prime Minister's announcement to close the outdoor markets," a short circuit that remained an important outlet. And when he manages to sell his production, Patrick Jouy is forced to sell it off: "We sell today for two euros per kilo of ciflorette, which is a high-end product, instead of eight to ten euros usually, knowing that our production cost is 6.50. "We will take ten years to recover but many operations will go bankrupt, he warns. It is catastrophic, the strawberry farmers are in danger. "
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