A labourer can earn around 160 kunas for eight hours of harvesting. Wine growers wonder if the job is too arduous, the money too little or have all the labourers emigrated
Grape quality is excellent, yield never better, but problems also ever greater. So speak winemakers from the east of Croatia. The grape harvest has begun, and besides the low buyout prices, winemakers also complain of lacking enough labourers, Vecernji.hr reported on September 14, 2017.
“Some don’t find the job appealing, others find it too hard, or the money is not enough, and I am afraid the largest group is those who simply don’t want to work. At the same time, many people have moved away,” says wine grower Ivan Buhač, one of the best known Ilok winemakers. To harvest 27 hectares of vineyards, Buhač managed to find 21 labourers, only three of them from Ilok. His winery has larger processing capacity, but cannot make use of them without more pickers. He explains that for superior wines it is necessary for the grapes to be picked by hand, not with combine harvesters which speed it up, but also pick what is not needed.
“We also hired labourers from Serbia with necessary paperwork, but the harvest will still be prolonged. I do hope we will manage to harvest it all,” says Buhač, who pays the labourers travel expenses and performance.
Ilok winemakers stress that the problem is more evident each year, now already alarming.
“We don’t know what to do, we need 25 labourers, and so far we have found 11. We’ve been searching in nearby villages as well as we have no choice. We all fear being unable to harvest all the grapes,” says Dario Kovačević from the family farm owned by Marijo Kovačević from Lovas.
Their family farm pays pickers 20 kunas per hour, so in eight hours the income is around 160 kunas. They also cover travel expenses or provide transportation. But to no avail.
Translated from Vecernji.hr.
