Fewer hands for the harvest: Lithuania’s apple orchards face seasonal labour crunch

Seasonal apple picking, once a popular source of extra income for hundreds of residents in northern Lithuania, is becoming increasingly difficult to staff as fewer people are willing to take the short-term jobs.

At Naradava orchards in Pasvalys district, pickers can earn as much as 100 euros a day. But while the pay remains attractive to some, the number of people seeking seasonal work has steadily declined.

In previous years, employers sometimes had to select workers from a pool of applicants. This year, nearly everyone who applies is being hired.

Vytautas, who has been picking apples at the orchards for almost two decades, looks forward to the harvest every year. For him, the seasonal work is a valuable opportunity to earn money because finding employment in the countryside can be difficult.

“It’s possible, but it’s difficult at my age,” he told LRT TV. “Here, I can manage to earn some money.”

Some workers use the income to supplement their pensions, while others take vacation from their regular jobs specifically to work during the harvest.

For some, the extra income is earmarked for a particular purchase or a trip.

“I work and arrange my personal life – I buy something or go somewhere,” one worker said. “Maybe I’ll manage to go somewhere this weekend.”

The orchards are also facing another challenge this year. A cold winter destroyed about one-third of the company’s orchards, but Naradava still expects to harvest around 4,000 metric tons of apples.

Finding enough workers, however, is becoming increasingly difficult.

“We really need these pickers, and this year we are using various methods to find them – ads in newspapers, asking acquaintances, and social media,” said Džiugas Palionis, director of Naradava. “We have about 150 workers at the peak this year, whereas in better years we managed to have as many as 300.”

Dalia Radzivonienė, a forewoman at the company, said the change is particularly noticeable compared with previous years.

Residents of surrounding districts once began asking well in advance when they could start working and often wanted to reserve places for family members. Demand was so high that the company sometimes had to hold selections.

“Now we have to take whoever comes,” Radzivonienė said. “There aren’t as many people interested as there used to be. In some years, people couldn’t get in. Now we accept everyone who comes.”

Naradava recruits workers from nearby villages and towns and operates its own bus to transport them from Pasvalys, Biržai and surrounding areas, Palionis said.

“We manage to gather them somehow,” he said. “Every year, there are fewer workers.”

The apple harvest is expected to continue until the end of October.