Lack of Labor in Greece Could Result in Lower Planted Acreage

Lack of labor in the Greek agriculture sector are forcing producers to consider reducing the acreage they plan to plant in 2022. Investments and advancements in precision agriculture is not at a stage to allow for the automation of a vast part of both open field and protected cultivation. Thus, there is still a large need to manual labor both in primary agriculture and processing.

In 2022, job openings in fruit canning factories were left unfilled and with the lots of absentees due to COVID-19 outbreaks. The production fell dramatically, leaving fruit for processing to remain unpicked or rotting at the warehouses. The Stone fruit association of north Greece will visit Vietnam during week 32 to investigate the potential of seasonal workers to be invited to Greece for the 2023 and 2024 seasons to alleviate the problem in the short term.

Although Greece has raised their minimum wage twice in 2022, Italy, Austria and Germany offer better rewards and compensations so the outflow of labor from Greece to these countries has increased.