Pandemic Threatens Croatia’s Strawberry Farmers With Bitter Harvest

But Croats are reluctant to do this backbreaking work and local farmers usually employ pickers from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially from its southern Herzegovina region - mostly Bosnian Croats with dual citizenship.

"[In previous years] many people came from Herzegovina, but now the border is closed so they cannot cross to Croatia. We are forced to seek a workforce here, in the local area," said Franic, who needs four to six workers to harvest every third or quarter of an acre of his strawberry field.

Local workers seen as alternative

Strawberries from Vrgorac area. Photo: Milan Franic.

Franic said rising unemployment in Croatia might help. "A silver lining is that a lot of people are currently without a job, or they would go to the [resort area of] Makarska Riviera for the tourist season, so now we've managed to transfer a part of those people to agriculture or strawberry picking," he explained.

Further to the south, in the Neretva valley, which is better known for growing citrus fruits and watermelons, but where more recently strawberries are also grown more intensively, a young farmer from Opuzen, Petar Bjelis - who also usually hires pickers from neighbouring countries - says he managed to get the harvest in: part of the work was done by his family and part by local pickers.

"People come in, day after day, looking for a job," Bjelis said. Still, Franic said one problem with this new local workforce is that they have not been trained to do this work. He still regrets losing his old trained workforce due to the closure of the borders.

"Sometimes the strawberry harvesting season lasts 45 days and for years we always had contact with good pickers. It was never a problem for such...