Apple Harvest Begins in France as COVID-19 Blocks Moroccan Seasonal Workers

The mildness of the climate this year has prompted farmers to start the apple harvest early. A long-term task, as it involves manually picking nearly 220,000 tons of fruit from August to late November. Tarn-et-Garonne is the leading apple-producing department in France. It employs several thousand workers each season, most of them foreigners, Europeans or non-EU nationals. In 2019 for example, "23,000 seasonal contracts were signed in the agriculture of Tarn-et-Garonne, of which a little more than 8,000 with French workers," reports ladepeche.fr.

But this year, the global health crisis makes collaboration with seasonal workers a little more difficult. "We have 1,200 seasonal workers confined and blocked in Morocco. The country has banned travel to and from eight of its cities, including Casablanca where these seasonal workers who are used to coming to us come from. They are in order, but it is Morocco that does not let them out. Here, the prefecture has given the green light," explains the elected member of the Tarn-et-Garonne Chamber of Agriculture. Farmers are wondering how to get by. "Without them, we can’t do anything. At the peak of the harvest, two-thirds of the workers are foreigners," says a producer.

Faced with the lack of manpower, a seasonal workers’ space has been created this year at the Chamber of Agriculture, but the void is still great. The authorities are calling on men and women who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic to the rescue. To attract more people, a Tarn-et-Garonne system has been set up which allows "seasonal workers not to lose the benefit of the RSA when they work in the fields. There are 6,000 beneficiaries in the department," the newspaper reports.

According to the same source, the fruit growers work in strict compliance with the preventive measures taken to fight against the coronavirus: distances, wearing masks, hydroalcoholic gel, cleaning of accommodation. "The Regional Health Agency has even offered to go to the orchards to test the apple pickers for free".