A new asparagus campaign without a sufficient number of seasonal workers

In Germany, asparagus producers fear a new season without a sufficient number of seasonal workers. Last year the national asparagus harvest fell by 19% due to labor shortages.

 

 

 

2020 was marked by the health crisis which in Germany had caused the flow of foreign seasonal workers to stop. Due to this labor shortage the national asparagus harvest had shrunk by 19%. This year, the health crisis is still present and German professionals fear that seasonal workers from Eastern Europe will no longer be able to enter Germany because of the new regulations in force.

 

 

 

Asparagus producers are asking for more flexible entry rules into the country. Especially for workers from Poland and Romania but also from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Having to spend 14 days in quarantine in a room on the farm seems unreasonable for the director of VSSE (Verbands Süddeutscher Spargel- und Erdbeeranbauer) the Association of Asparagus and Strawberry Producers of Southern Germany.

 

 

 

Germany will need 140,000 seasonal workers nationwide for the asparagus and berry harvest, including 24,000 on farms in the southwest of the country. VSSE announces good quality for asparagus. Due to the favorable weather forecast, most growers will have asparagus just before the Easter holidays.