Some 40,000 candidates had expressed themselves Wednesday morning, 24 hours after the national call launched to compensate for the lack of seasonal workers in agriculture due to the measures taken to fight against the spread of the coronavirus, indicated the FNSEA.
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"Join the great army of French agriculture"
The Minister of Agriculture Didier Guillaume launched Tuesday morning "an appeal to the army in the shadow of men and women (who) are no longer active" because of the crisis linked to Covid-19, inviting them to "join the great army of French agriculture", in search of labor for harvesting fruit and vegetables or spring sowing. This call was widely relayed by the FNSEA.
"More than 40,000 people have registered" on the site www.desbraspourtonassiette.wizi.farm, "by offering their availability, with at least 24,000 very well informed files behind" (profile, availability, geographic area), said Jérôme Volle, winegrower in Ardèche and president of the employment commission at the FNSEA. The 16,000 other potential candidates were victims, according to him, of the success of the operation: "there was a computer bug, at one point. In the afternoon, there was a rush which was complicated to manage, "he said. He specified that these people were going to be contacted to complete their file.
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210,000 people needed between March and May
"The idea, with the Covid-19, is to find people nearby, to avoid travel. We try to favor employers from the same territory as those who have registered," said Jérôme Volle, indicating that there are candidates "throughout the territory". The needs were quantified by the main employers 'and employees' union in the agricultural sector, the FNSEA, at 200,000 people over three months: "We need 50,000 people in March, 80,000 in April and 80,000 in May", had detailed the president of FNSEA Christiane Lambert Tuesday evening.
Among the candidates, "obviously, we have people from the rural world, we also have people who came to their second home or to friends, and also people in the peri-urban area," said Jérôme Volle. "We understand that some people want to go to the countryside or go to work in agriculture, because being confined, it allows us to stretch. We remember that we are in a professional, economic and that people who register must take this into account, "warned Jérôme Volle.
Main sources of demand: the harvesting of fruit and vegetables, especially in the South-East and the South-West, but also "the north of France, with endives", even if certain operators fear above all not to to be able to sell their goods after the markets have closed. Arms to harvest, but also to drive machines, to "thin" the fruit trees or to finish the pruning of the vine are in particular sought, but by using "all the sanitary barriers": "the countryside, it is not only the big air is also areas where you can contract the Covid-19 ", underlined Jérôme Volle.
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