Tea pickers wanted to work for a monthly salary of 7,000 TL! Due to coronavirus precautions, the closure of border crossings in the Eastern Black Sea region has prevented roughly 40,000 foreign seasonal workers from entering the country. At the same time, about 100,000 producers who intended to come to the region have been restricted from travel because of the pandemic. As a result, the search for workers to harvest tea is underway at full speed. In Fındıklı district of Rize province, a campaign under the slogan “Don’t Let Our Tea Stay in the Fields” is visiting neighborhoods and villages to recruit workers, offering wages up to 6,900 TL per month and social security coverage.
The fresh tea harvest across the Eastern Black Sea—covering Rize, Trabzon, Artvin and Giresun—will soon begin on approximately 830,000 decares cultivated by about one million families. As every year, tea picking was expected to start around mid-May, but this year the coronavirus has created difficulties. The border closures that prevent 40,000 foreign workers from entering have caused labor shortages. To address these problems, the Rize Governorship is coordinating with district offices, municipalities, Çaykur, the commodity exchange and agricultural chambers to plan how to carry out the harvest safely and effectively.
Around 2,000 Workers Needed Across the District
To close the labor gap for the fresh tea harvest, efforts continue across the region. Measures include recruiting university students who returned home due to the pandemic and organizing work through Vefa Social Support Groups. In Fındıklı, the “Don’t Let Our Tea Stay in the Fields” project mobilizes local associations to visit villages and neighborhoods to find harvest workers.
Tea Workers Will Be Insured for Six Months
The project provides insured employment for six months. Ercüment Şahin Çervatoğlu, the mayor of Fındıklı, explained that joint project work has been organized to solve the labor shortage and to ensure tea is harvested rather than left in the fields. The initiative is valley-based: people will work near their own neighborhoods and villages, reducing movement between areas. The program is designed to be minimally intrusive to producers; the tea floor price and related costs will be respected and the project will not interfere with producers’ decisions.
Returned university students will be able to pick tea in their own villages and neighborhoods. Young workers will be employed with social security and wages for six months while helping neighbors with their tea harvest. Participants will receive at least the legal minimum wage. Payment examples based on daily harvest amounts are: for a daily fresh tea yield of 300 kg, a monthly income of 4,650 TL; for 350 kg per day, 5,750 TL per month; and for 400 kg per day, up to 6,900 TL per month.