The Italian Minister for Agriculture Teresa Bellanova recently stated that in times of Coronavirus, while the north of the country is particularly damaged by the pandemic, “we truly realize that it is we who need the immigrants”, rather than them who need us.
Bellanova is referring to the increasing demand for migrant workers in agriculture to help Italy maintain a fully operative food and agricultural production chain. Coldiretti (the National Confederation of Agricultural Producers) claims that 40 per cent of agricultural products might go to waste, if the needed labour force for the seasonal harvesting of fruits and vegetables is not in place, and quickly. Over 370,000 workers, according to Coldretti, are now needed to harvest agri-food products this year.
The Italian agricultural sector has always been highly dependent on migrant labourers for continuity in production and market distribution. Out of over 1 million agricultural workers with regular contracts, about 28 per cent are migrants and 53 per cent of them are from another EU country, while the rest come from outside the EU. Yet it widely recognised that the number of migrants employed in the agricultural sector is well above these figures, since it includes the irregular farmworkers. The number of immigrants employed in agriculture is well above the 400,000 of the workforce, with an estimated 16.5 per cent employed through informal contracts and 39 per cent working at much lower wages than the regulated contract.
