This year the crop of mandarins in the Neretva Valley is estimated to be a record breaking 90,000 tons, however finding workers to harvest the fruit is proving a huge problem. The company AgroFructus from Opuzen reported today that the estimates for this year’s harvest are record breaking, but warned of a lack of seasonal workers.
“It is estimated that this year's crop of tangerines will be a record and could be as high as 90,000 tons, and we cannot find workers who will harvest the mandarins and prepare them for the market,” said the CEO of the AgroFructus group Denis Matijevic to the website seebiz.eu. He added that they need an extra 150 seasonal workers. Matijevic concluded that the lack of workforce in Croatia was due to the migration of workers to other European Union countries in search of a brighter future.
“More than 100,000 working age have moved from Croatia, and this trend is still on the rise,” said Matijevic. Harvesting the mandarins within a certain time scale is vital for the quality of fruit and therefore Croatian farmers need to find a work force quickly. And if this workforce cannot be found inside Croatia the new law means that it is also difficult to find employees from foreign countries. According to the work permit quota system brought in by the Government only 20 foreign workers can be employed in the agricultural industry in 2016.
"We have about 170,000 farms in Croatia and this quota makes it impossible to employ foreign workers,” added Matijevic. Until a solution is found Croatian farms, and in particular the mandarin production in the Neretva Valley, will remain in a very precarious position.