Who harvests our asparagus?

Mayer, for one, is angry. The asparagus farmer from southern Germany just picked up 12 harvest workers in Baden-Baden in a big rental bus. She should be happy about this because it means she can go ahead with the harvest.

But Mayer isn't happy. She has seen harsh criticism in the media and on social networks. The German government is being criticised for allowing 80'000 harvest workers to be flown in from Romania during the coronavirus crisis. Farmers are being criticised for supposedly turning down local workers in favour of cheaper labour from abroad.

Harvesting asparagus is hard work

"This criticism is naive and short-sighted," Mayer says on the phone. "No one here in Western Europe wants to do these kinds of jobs. There's hardly anyone left who wants to become even a gardener or a builder."

Harvesting asparagus is a job for strong young men. It's hard work, as Mayer says. "You have to wade through mud in the wind and rain or stand bent over under the blazing sun and carry 10-kilo baskets all day." Cutting the asparagus also takes special skills. "It requires expertise" says Mayer. "You have to know what you're doing."

Given the potential labour shortage due to the coronavirus, an attempt was made this year to hire students from the region. "The young women didn't last very long on the job and the men didn't fare much better," says Mayer.

Many people could benefit from some insight into what it's really like, as Esther Thalmann reports. The editor of the Swiss Bauernzeitung, a major news publication for the agriculture industry, spent a day in the asparagus fields in mid-April. She describes the work of harvesting asparagus as backbreaking and admits to pulling many broken spears out of the ground.

A year's wages in their home country

Mayer and Keil's 12 Romanian workers – all men – have been doing this job for many years. They come to the farm in Kelheim every spring and harvest asparagus.

They live on the farm and work up to 10 hours every day, even on Sundays and public holidays. It takes them one hour to harvest 16 kilos of asparagus, which earns them €9.35. They return home at the end of the season with as much money as they would earn in an entire year working in Romania.

Sources

• Article in the German newspaper TAZ, "For a handful of asparagus" (accessed on 15 April 2020)
• Article in Bauernzeitung "Field report: Harvesting asparagus looks easy, but it's not" (accessed on 20 April 2020)