The shortage of labor in the fruit sector is unfortunately a reality; the situation that had been perceived for several seasons now was further complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic and today it is one of the great ghosts that haunt the 2021-22 cherry campaign, which, as it is seen at first glance, will be abundant in terms of production.
Given this positive forecast, the question inevitably arises: will there be enough hands for the work required for a good cherry season? To answer this question and many others that arise in the current scenario in the fruit sector, we will take into consideration an important study carried out by Agrometric Spa, an entity that analyzed the different variables of the workforce in the agricultural sector in Chile.
The study consisted of a survey conducted between September 9 and 24 of this year, in order to learn the opinions of agricultural producers and exporters regarding the labor situation in the sector, explore factors that would be affecting the availability of labor, measure the impact of the pandemic, identify measures implemented to attract and retain labor and, finally, investigate perspectives for the coming months.
The target group surveyed is made up of people who work in agricultural production and/or export companies between the Coquimbo and Los Lagos regions, 89% men and 11% women.
Availability of labor and factors affecting it
One of the questions that respondents had to answer was: Before the pandemic, what are the two main reasons that, in your opinion, have been triggering a lower availability of labor in the sector? Each respondent was able to mention a maximum of two factors.
A 56% responded that the situation is due to the increase in labor-intensive crops; a 44% mentioned that it is due to the migration of labor to other industries, a 38% migration from the rural sector to the cities, a 13% little progress in mechanization of some automatable tasks, a 13% others, including the existence of subsidies and the lack of motivation generated by working in the agricultural sector.
Regarding the lack of labor prior to the pandemic, 67% of respondents indicated no having experienced availability problems to carry out agricultural work, while the remaining 33% said yes. During the pandemic, the figures varied to 6% and 94%, respectively.
Among the three main factors associated with the pandemic that, according to those surveyed, would have affected the availability of labor to carry out agricultural tasks, are the following:
| FACTORS | PERCENTAGE |
| Fear of losing emergency family income (IFE) | 82% |
| Withdrawals of 10% from the AFPs | 66% |
| Use of unemployment insurance | 65% |
| Childcare due to school closures | 23% |
| Lack of foreigners due to border closures | 23% |
| Fear of contracting Covid-19 | 19% |
| Mobility restrictions due to quarantines | 19% |
| Others | 3% |
The analysis carried out by Agrometric also made it possible to determine which months of the year would present the greatest problems with the availability of labour, and among them the following stand out: June and July, in addition to November and December, the latter being crucial in the cherry harvest.
The situation in the agricultural sector regarding the lack of personnel to carry out the different tasks involved in the various crops has generated, in addition to the logical inconveniences, an increase in salaries. A significant part of those surveyed indicated that they have had to readjust workers' salaries between 20% and 40% to attract and/or retain labor since the pandemic began in March 2020, costs that are added to production.
So how to face this new season? Most of the respondents (79%) by Agrometric aim to reinforce recruitment strategies, including: offering more attractive salaries (86%), hiring directly to strengthen ties with workers (33%), investing to generate more comfortable working conditions (32%) recruitment campaigns on social networks (24%), offering additional benefits (24%), training middle managers to improve treatment-communication (16%), dissemination campaigns to show benefits offered (15%), others (9%).
Regarding the perception of the availability of labor for the current season, taking into account the 2020-21 campaign, 55% of those surveyed believe that the situation will improve in the coming months, 30% believe that it will worsen, and 15% that it will remain the same.
