Inje County, South Korea, introduces 700 Filipino seasonal workers...building 'trust' solid for the fourth year.

(Inje=Yonhap News) Reporter Park Young-seo = Based on an agreement with local governments in the Philippines, Gangwon Inje County has been steadily operating a foreign seasonal worker system for the fourth year, and has now fully embarked on preliminary procedures to introduce seasonal workers ahead of the agricultural peak season this year. According to the Inje County Agricultural Technology Center on the 9th, a total of around 700 people are planned to be introduced from San Luis City and Batangas Province in the Philippines to resolve the rural labor shortage during the agricultural peak season this year, and administrative procedures including visa issuance are currently underway. The planned number of people to be introduced is about 500 from San Luis City and about 200 from Batangas Province. Inje County's foreign seasonal worker program began in December 2022 with an agreement with San Luis City. Subsequently, in February 2023, Inje County officials visited the local area directly to inspect the worker selection system and living conditions, and from March of the same year, worker entry became full-scale, and the system was stabilized. In particular, in July 2023, officials from San Luis City visited Inje County directly to check the working environment and operational status on farms, and mutual exchanges continued, establishing a cooperative relationship based on trust beyond simple labor supply. The San Luis City side expressed their intention to visit again this year and conveyed their intention to continue to expand the cooperative relationship between the two local governments, forming a long-term partnership. The number of seasonal workers in the Inje region is increasing every year, but the number of workers leaving their posts is decreasing. The county believes that the satisfaction of both farms and workers has increased due to the combination of strengthened on-site management, pre-employment training, and work environment inspections. This year, too, the county is meticulously coordinating the entry schedule and deployment plan so that workers are deployed on-site promptly during the peak demand period from March to June. In particular, the administration plans to concentrate its administrative capacity on minimizing labor shortages on farms through phased supply matched to the farming season. An official from the Inje County Agricultural Technology Center said, "We will do our best to ensure that the seasonal workers introduced this year are supplied without any issues before the agricultural peak season, so that farmers can focus on farming without worrying about labor."