It is the official harvesting season for outdoor-grown mandarins on Jeju Island.
However, as the prolonged pandemic restricts workers from coming into Jeju from both the mainland and overseas, local farms are suffering a shortage of workhands.
Todd Thacker reports.

Report


At this time of year, workers from the mainland and other countries used to enter the island to work at mandarin farms.



The number of foreign workers coming to the island has dropped 33 percent, mainly due to COVID-19 entry restrictions.



The province used to recruit mandarin pickers nationwide every year, but this year COVID-19 precautions have limited the scope to local recruitment.


As farms are shorthanded, an increasing number of mandarin growers are signing sales contracts with wholesalers even as the fruit in the orchards remains unpicked.

Mandarin growers have delayed harvest until late November due to the current plunge in prices.
This means that farmers will be even more short-handed during the postponed harvest.


To seek a solution, the province and the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation are accepting applications for paid workers.
But farmers remain unconvinced, since most of the applicants are inexperienced in picking mandarins and other issues like transportation remain problematic.


The two offices, on the other hand, are seeking volunteer mandarin picking teams to assign to farms cultivated by elderly farmers and farmers with disabilities. But the number of applicants is small.

Mandarin growers are facing a doubly daunting season, from the drop in prices to worker shortages.

Todd Thacker, KCTV