Exporters in Greece are calling on authorities to relax entry requirements for hiring foreign land workers to address a shortage of 180,000 workers in this sector.
The shortage of agricultural workers in Greece is leading to either uncultivated land or unharvested crops, causing significant losses to farmers and the economy, according to Schengen.News.
The National Interprofessional Organization for Table Olives (DOEPEL), as cited by Gargalianoi Online, reported that up to 30 percent of green olives from the 2022/23 growing season were left unharvested. This resulted in a nearly €27 million decrease in agricultural revenues, with insurance contribution losses estimated to have exceeded two million euros.
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Exporters are proposing the adoption of the French model, which would ease hiring criteria for third-country nationals.
To date, Greece has received 14,000 applications for work residence permits following a recent amendment, with authorities expecting this number to surpass 30,000.
To address the labor shortage, Greece has reached an agreement with Egypt to recruit 5,000 Egyptian seasonal workers for the agricultural sector this summer. The application platform for employers to hire workers from Egypt has been available on the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum’s website since June 10, 2024.
Greek Minister of Migration Dimitris Kairidis announced that the first list of 2,400 qualified seasonal workers from Egypt has been prepared in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Labour.
However, this initiative is considered insufficient by agricultural experts, as the demand for seasonal workers is estimated to be around 80,000 in regions like Crete, Peloponnese, and Macedonia. The Prefecture of Messinia alone requires about 4,800 agricultural workers for the entire cultivation period (nine months), according to Aggelis Korovilas, president of the Agricultural Association of Philiatrians of Messinia.
For 2023 and 2024, Greece plans to allocate 147,926 residence permits for third-country national workers across 13 regions.
In a previous attempt to tackle labor shortages, Greece considered integrating irregular migrants. In September 2023, Minister Kairidis stated that regularizing the status of irregular migrants aims to ease shortages in the construction, agriculture, and tourism sectors.