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| This photo shows a greenhouse owned by Koo Jin taek, a farmer in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province. He would normally be harvesting the lettuce during the spring season, but this year, he had to destroy the crops due to the shortage of farm workers. Courtesy of Koo Jin-taek |
Since start of pandemic, only one-tenth of foreign national workers have entered Korea
By Lee Hyo-jin
Koo Jin-taek, a vegetable farm owner in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, would normally be harvesting thousands of heads of lettuce during the spring season, but instead, he had to destroy his crops, as there was simply no one to harvest the perfectly tradable vegetables.
"It is literally heartbreaking to have to destroy them. But I have no choice. With only five workers on the farm, it is impossible to harvest the crops," the 55-year-old farmer told The Korea Times.
Koo ― who currently owns 45 greenhouses producing lettuce, chicory and other leafy green vegetables ― initially had nine workers from Cambodia before the COVID-19 pandemic started. But the number has been cut down to three since then. And only recently was he lucky enough to be able to hire two more workers.
"Some workers left because their visas expired, while others moved to other farms where they were offered higher salaries. I've asked the local authorities multiple times to match me with new workers, but they couldn't. And things have only gotten worse over the last three years," said Koo.
Although labor shortages are not a new phenomenon in Korea's agricultural industry, farms across the nation are struggling with the worst labor shortage in recent memory due to a plunge in entrants of foreign nationality amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to data from the Ministry of Labor and Employment, only about 6,600 and 5,100 foreign national workers entered the country in 2020 and 2021, respectively, a dramatic decline compared to pre-pandemic levels, when over 50,000 workers were deployed every year.
Against this backdrop, in December of last year, the labor ministry decided to grant one-year extensions to foreign national workers holding E-9 and H-2 visas, whose stays were to end between Jan. 1 and April 12, 2022.
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| Workers of foreign nationality harvest plants on a farm in Yecheon County, North Gyeongsang Province. Korea Times file |
The Ministry of Justice, for its part, announced in February that it would deploy over 11,000 guest workers within the first half of this year, an increase of more than double the figure of last year.
These temporary measures, however, have been insufficient to solve the issue. Not only is the number of migrant workers not enough, but the soaring demand for manpower has driven up wages.
"Before the pandemic, migrant workers on farms in our region received around 1.6 million won to 1.8 million won per month. And the monthly salary would increase by about 50,000 won to 100,000 won each year, but since the start of the pandemic, their monthly salaries have risen by up to 200,000 won," said Kim Dal-sung, head of Pocheon Migrant Workers' Center in Pocheon, northern Gyeonggi Province.
Kim explained that the prolonged shortage of migrant workers has led to a situation where farmers have no choice but to employ undocumented foreign nationals.
"I don't think the problems will be easily solved with the government's short-term measures. We can only hope that things will gradually return to normal, and that the number of migrant workers will return to pre-pandemic numbers as the virus situation stabilizes," he added.
Local governments that have been trying to solve the issue by asking for support from the central government are now seeking to tackle the manpower shortage through cooperation with their counterparts in Southeast Asian countries.
Muan County in South Jeolla Province is set to invite seasonal workers of foreign nationality through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with the municipal government of Silang in the Philippines.
Further, officials of Yecheon County in North Gyeongsang Province recently visited Yen Binh District in Vietnam to sign an agreement to deploy workers to the county. Under the agreement, the local government has pledged to guarantee Vietnamese workers' human rights and resolve payment issues. The Vietnamese authorities will be responsible for selecting and educating the workers.
Gangwon Provincial Government, for its part, has signed an agreement with six universities in the region, Monday, to allow foreign national students to work on farms, on the condition that such employment does not disrupt their studies.
