- More than 200,000 people responded to the national call to compensate for the lack of seasonal workers in agriculture.
- Among them, several came to work in Anne-Claire Goyer's tomato greenhouses.
- The operator was surprised by the influx of volunteers, sometimes novices.
Like thousands of farmers, Anne-Claire Goyer took the coronavirus crisis head-on. Producer of tomatoes grown in greenhouses in the Pays de la Loire region, she found herself with a reduced workforce, some of her employees being forced to stay at home to babysit their children.
Faced with this situation, it benefited from an unexpected workforce. At the call of the Minister of Agriculture, thousands of French people, placed on partial unemployment or inactive, have indeed decided to go "to work in the fields". Anne-Claire Goyer tells 20 Minutes about this new organization, which should allow her to partially ensure her annual production of 6,000 tonnes.
Have you recruited people who are currently partially unemployed?
We have a few people who have come to lend us a hand to strengthen the teams. These are quite unusual profiles: a hairdresser, a landscaper, people who are on the markets. In total, out of a hundred seasonal workers, around ten usually have another job. They work in harvesting and leaf stripping (plant maintenance) seven hours a day, paid by the minimum wage.
When the Minister of Agriculture confirmed that we could combine partial unemployment with other work, we were inundated with calls, we did not expect to have as many. Many people who live next to our greenhouses have contacted us directly to find out if we need help. Overall, I find it interesting to introduce our professions to people who do not necessarily come from our sector. And this can help to ventilate the mind during confinement. Finally, for us, this is essential, because April is an important harvest period.
Can any part-time employee come to help you?
Not necessarily. With us for example, we favor people who are available for a fairly long period, several weeks, even several months. It takes at least a week or two to train someone, to introduce them to fruit maturity, to the harvesting technique. The time spent training must therefore be taken into account, because during this period, the person is less effective.
Ideally, people should be available until the end of August, so it's not compatible with all trades. We also need people who are there 35 hours a week, not just a few hours.
How do you protect the health of your employees, new or old, against coronavirus?
We are fortunate to work in large spaces. In the greenhouses, the rows of tomatoes are 90 meters long and there is one person per row, so it's a fairly lonely job. In addition, we have staggered the hiring hours to avoid having too many people on the farm at the same time.
There are also other measures that we have put in place for years. We have footbaths at the entrance of each greenhouse and hydroalcoholic gel, to avoid spreading tomato diseases and to protect plants. Suddenly, it serves in this context of epidemic. However, we have chosen to give our masks to the nursing staff, so we are out of stock. Some come to work with homemade masks.
Some farmers have found it difficult to listen to their production in recent weeks. Is this your case?
In terms of outlets, the big brands have really switched to French production. We do not need to stock, whereas in previous years, we had more trouble dealing with tomatoes imported from Morocco, for example. This change was clearly felt on our scale, the mass distribution really played the game. I hope that this will allow us to ask the right questions once the crisis is over.
Planet
Pesticides: Prefects reduce protective distances, association shouts scandal
Society
Coronavirus: Can I find another job while waiting for my partial unemployment?
- Coronavirus
- Economy
- Farmers
- Interview
- Agriculture
- Containment