Pauperisation of orange pickers in Brazil: the Public Eye survey

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Three tonnes of oranges are transported daily to the production areas. Getty Images / FG Trade

By: Claire Fages Follow

While orange juice has been acclaimed since the Covid-19 epidemic first appeared, the working conditions of orange pickers have not improved in Brazil, the world's largest producer of orange juice. The NGO Public Eye invites the giant of the trade Louis Dreyfus, heavyweight of the sector, to improve the situation of its seasonal workers

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They come mainly from the poorest state in Brazil, Nordeste, to pick oranges. In the production region around Sao Paulo, they are called “migrants”. There are 50,000 officially, but many are not declared. A slave labor, up to 110 boxes of 27 kilos, or 3 tonnes transported per day. Because the remuneration depends on the yield of the picker and sometimes only on that. The legal minimum wage, already low, the equivalent of 182 euros in Brazil, is not always respected.

The Swiss NGO points the finger at the trading giant Louis Dreyfus who manages these operations from Geneva. Louis Dreyfus has become number three in the world trade in frozen concentrated orange juice behind the Brazilian companies Cutrale and Citrosuco. By investing not only in refrigerated vessels, storage and processing, but also in 25,000 hectares of orchards in Brazil, the country that supplies half of the world's orange juice.

Insanitary housing and 100 % orange juice activity continued during the pandemic

On his 38 plantations, Louis Dreyfus says that he respects the minimum wage and properly equips the pickers, but this is far from being the case with his suppliers. Seasonal workers do not have access to the group's health services, they pay for substandard housing, sometimes without running water, while the Covid-19 epidemic is hitting Brazil very hard. 

The orange sector remains an essential activity in this pandemic period, the three major exporters, including Louis Dreyfus, want to continue the activity at 100%. Demand for orange juice has risen sharply in Europe and the United States since March, causing prices for this New York-listed product to jump 36%, while the trend was down consumption. But the situation of seasonal workers is always more precarious.

Duty of care

Labor law in Brazil no longer requires that travel time to plantations, often several hours, be counted as remuneration. Administrative controls are rare. Public Eye therefore asks Louis Dreyfus to exercise its duty of diligence to guarantee orange pickers not only the minimum wage, but a wage that guarantees a decent standard of living in Brazil.

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  • Brazil
  • Agriculture and Fisheries
  • Poverty