Up to 80,000 farmhands urgently needed

Farmers’ associations say 60,000 to 80,000 farmhands are needed to help with the various harvests across all seasons, many of them in the region of Central Macedonia.

Despite the still high jobless rate, Greeks disdain the hard work and low wages of farmhands. Of the 32,000 Albanian farmworkers that arrived in 2020 through a bilateral agreement, almost all have left for better paid jobs in other European countries.

Bureaucratic obstacles get in the way of bringing in workers from South and East Asia, farmers complain. Agreements with India, Thailand and Vietnam limiting visa validity to nine months result in limited interest. 

AMNA