Covid-19: strawberry producers in Belgium face shortage of labor

Audio 01:07

For the Belgian strawberry producer, Pascal Bolle, the season could have been barely saved (illustration image). Christophe Carmarans / RFI

Text by: Anissa El Jabri Follow

The coronavirus crisis has hit farmers hard. The harvest of Belgian strawberries has started and many have suffered from the lack of labor, as it is still difficult to bring in the usual seasonal workers from Poland and Romania. Belgium is just beginning to organize. A beginning of relief for strawberry producers.

Publicity

Read more

From our special correspondent in Gerpinnes in the Walloon region,

Standing in the cold wind in front of the entrance to his farm, Pascal Bolle still has a hard time digesting the difficulties encountered in bringing in his usual seasonal staff from Romania.

" It's not part of the job, "  he says . A storm, we expect it, a hailstorm, we expect it, a drought, we expect it is part of our job, but a border closure, it is not part of the vagaries of our job.  "

► Read also: Coronavirus: in Western Europe, the puzzle of the agricultural sector to recruit seasonal workers

In the preceding weeks, attempts to recruit local labor had been unsuccessful. "  We put 80 to work and we have 7 left," continues the producer. People don't realize that strawberries are a craft. You have to be motivated to stay on your knees, have back pain the first day, etc. "

Since this weekend the picking has started. The trucks pick up deliveries. Pascal sketches a smile. “  Production, this week, we're in the middle of it. So fatally within 10 days we were fucked up. It was high time. "

Pascal Bolle saves his strawberry production. For asparagus producers it is too late. Those there needed personnel last April.

► Also read: Lending a helping hand to French farmers: not so easy!

Our selection on the coronavirus

• Listen to our daily chronicle  Coronavirus info

• The practical questions  :
→  What is known about the mode of contagion
→  disparities and inequalities in coronaviruses: what to remember
→  What outcomes for clinical trials?
→  A vaccine, the only solution to stem the pandemic?
→  How to make a mask and use it well

• Our series  : "  The response, country by country  "

• Each evening, find the State of the world and Africa facing the pandemic

• See also the files of RFI Savoirs on the Covid-19:
→  Birth of a pandemic
→  Everyday life put to the test
→  The history of epidemics
→  Science facing the Covid-19
→  The geopolitical consequences

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Belgium
  • Coronavirus
  • Agriculture and Fisheries
  • Employment and Work

On the same subject

Lending a helping hand to French farmers: not so easy!

Coronavirus: in Western Europe, the puzzle of the agricultural sector to recruit seasonal workers

Macron in Brittany to "thank France farm"