Seasonal labour and seasonal workers in Hungarian fruit-farming. Labour market processes and close-ups in European context

Abstract

The article uses extensive case studies in two locations using semi-structured interviews and desk research into numerous publications by Eurostat and the Hungarian Central Statistical Office to investigate aspects of the shortage of seasonal manual labour in Hungarian agriculture. It analyses first the globalisation of the market for seasonal agricultural labour since roughly the 1980s and then two sub-periods of demand in Hungary: the early years of post-socialist transformation to the economic crisis of 2007-2008 (when highly qualified seasonal labour came from Transylvania); and the years following the 2008 crisis and its consequences till around 2015 (when this labour opted to move further west for higher wages, the supplies from Transylvania became poor Roma living in deep poverty, and workfare schemes competed for local labour). A section then considers patterns of Roma employment since the end of socialism, because these are crucial to this sub-section of the labour market: Hungarian farmers can only afford precarious workers living in deep poverty, and, following the collapse of socialist industry, the majority of people that fall into this category are Roma. There then follows an analysis of the current situation following economic regeneration from around 2015. Despite a generally improved labour market and a decline in workfare schemes, the situation for seasonal labour in agriculture has remained broadly unchanged.

Finally, the local experience of two case studies is compared, one, Nagykőrös district (east of Budapest on the Great Plain), where there is a dearth of local seasonal agricultural labour and the other, Bonyhád district (in remote hilly country southwest of Budapest), where there are isolated Roma communities and where some are motivated to engage in seasonal agricultural labour. This section begins with a general picture of the two districts before presenting the rise in both of them since the fall of socialism of a group of entrepreneurial farmers. In Nagykőrös there was a long tradition of entrepreneurial (though small-scale) farming; in Bonyhád it was a child of the post-socialist era, although with roots in the last socialist decade; in Nagykőrös marketing channels declined after socialism; in Bonyhád a new cooperative played a determining role. The article then illustrates the problems experienced by the farmers in obtaining reliable, quality workers for the remuneration that they can afford identifying, among other things, in the case of the bigger farmers most reliant on labour from beyond family and friends, the strategies used to retain labour – extending the season as long as possible by varying the product-mix, providing accommodation and giving general assistance in a multitude of forms.