Shortages of labor for the next agricultural season are a serious problem for many countries in Western Europe, given the inability to host foreign seasonal workers due to mobility restrictions and measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
As a result, various governments are encouraging workers who have lost their jobs during this period to start working in agriculture, according to Didier Guillaume, French Minister of Agriculture.
Bulgaria’s vineyards allow the country to produce about 200 thousand tons of wine annually. This makes the country one of the largest wine producing countries in the world. The traditions of manufacturing this product in Bulgaria for more than a thousand years.
The agricultural sector in Bulgaria wants the same. In Bulgaria there is a similar proposal - to redirect people who have lost their jobs as a result of the epidemic to the agricultural sector. More than 10 non-governmental organizations in the agricultural sector: producers, processors and trade unions, insist on expanding the list of sectors eligible for compensation in case of emergency. To provide the necessary labor in the active season, they insist on facilitating access to the industry labor market for students.
This employment will be regulated with the help of one-day employment contracts, as well as with the redirection of workers from other sectors who have lost their jobs. There are also measures to encourage returning workers from other sectors of the economy.
The Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry announced that, together with the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, work is underway to find a mechanism for sending the unemployed to harvest, as well as to agriculture. “But at this stage there is no further clarity regarding specific measures.”
- Minister of Agriculture Desislava Taneva and her deputies presented today the measures that they intend to take in relation to the fruit and vegetable industry.
- “The middle sector in the bakery and confectionery industry, unfortunately, remains huge. And he is in no way repressed, not painted, not presented to the light, ”commented Mariana Kukusheva from the board of the Federation of Bakers and Confectioners of Bulgaria.
- The Bulgarian State Agricultural Fund (SFA) paid BGN 450 157 979 (approximately 255 944 071 US dollars) to 58 072 farmers as part of a payment scheme for agricultural practices that are beneficial to the climate and the environment.
