Ukrainian farms are facing a severe shortage of workers for berry harvesting, particularly raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries, during the summer season. Due to the mass outflow of labor abroad, farmers are forced to rethink their approaches to wages and staff recruitment to ensure timely harvests and maintain their positions in the export market.
This is reported by Finway
Hiring Foreign Workers and New Salary Offers
Farmers are considering the possibility of hiring harvesters from abroad, particularly from Bangladesh and Nepal, as Serbia has long been doing. Some farms are willing to offer salaries comparable to those in Poland – up to 1500 euros per month – to attract workers from both Ukraine and other countries. According to experts, at least 100,000 additional workers need to be recruited during the peak berry harvesting season in Ukraine.
“Without foreign workers, we will not be able to harvest raspberries in 2026 and maintain our leading position as an exporter of this berry,” says Taras Bashtannyk, president of the Ukrainian Fruit and Vegetable Association.
Labor Shortage and Outflow of Personnel Abroad
Currently, seasonal harvesters in Moldova are paid between 1300 and 1500 hryvnias per day, while in Poland this amount reaches approximately 3000 hryvnias. Due to higher wages, many Ukrainian women, who make up the majority of seasonal harvesters, are going to work in Poland, Italy, or Spain. As a result, there is a noticeable shortage of labor in the Ukrainian market just before the harvest season.
Recruitment agencies are already receiving numerous requests for workers from Asian and African countries. Laborers and helpers are offered salaries of around 500 dollars per month, while those with qualifications or who can work as drivers or operators of complex machinery can earn up to 800 dollars. The most job openings are available in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, and Vinnytsia regions.
However, some farmers are striving to retain Ukrainian workers by raising salaries to levels competitive with Western countries. In particular, Maxim Buryachenko, the owner of the company “Fruit Logistics,” notes that he is targeting urban residents who can take advantage of seasonal work opportunities during their vacations.