Exporters in Greece are urging authorities to ease entry requirements for foreign land workers to address a critical shortage of 180,000 workers in the agricultural sector.
This shortage has led to significant economic losses, with large swathes of land either left uncultivated or crops unharvested, according to Schengen. News, this has severely impacted farmers and the Greek economy. The National Interprofessional Organization for Table Olives (DOEPEL) reported that nearly 30 percent of green olives from the 2022/23 growing season were unharvested, resulting in a nearly €27 million decrease in agricultural revenues and insurance contribution losses exceeding two million euros.
Exporters are proposing the adoption of a model similar to France’s, which would relax hiring criteria for third-country nationals.
Greece has received 14,000 applications for work residence permits following a recent amendment, and authorities expect this number to exceed 30,000.
To tackle the labor shortage, Greece has reached an agreement with Egypt to recruit 5,000 Egyptian seasonal workers for the agricultural sector this summer. Employers can apply to hire workers from Egypt through a platform 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, agricultural experts deem this initiative insufficient, as the demand for seasonal workers is estimated to be around 80,000 in regions such as Crete, Peloponnese, and Macedonia. For instance, 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 effort to address labor shortages, Greece considered integrating irregular migrants. In September 2023, Minister Kairidis mentioned that regularizing the status of irregular migrants aims to alleviate shortages in the construction, agriculture, and tourism sectors.
