Freshuelva estimates that only a quarter of Huelva's strawberry area - which this year has exceeded 6,100 hectares - will remain active in the first weeks of June, and one of the main factors behind this drastic decrease will be due to workforce issues.
The manager of Freshuelva, Rafael Dominguez, said that, as the weather improves, local workers move to other sectors, such as catering, hotels, and fair catering.
"The workers leave and the companies have problems filling these vacancies both on the farms and in the warehouses. That's why many producers carry out campaigns on social networks to try to fill out these vacancies," he added.
However, the situation can still be complicated at the end of this month of May because many workers take advantage of the start of the stone fruit campaign in Seville to leave and, most importantly, because of the start of the Romería del Rocío pilgrimage, with all that this implies at the labor level. Thus, the forecast is that at the beginning of June only 25% of the strawberry hectares can be active. And that's because the construction sector is very relaxed. Otherwise, there would be no one left to work the fields."
Source: agrodiariohuelva.es