Ukrainians not interested in strawberry picking in Spain

Joi, 28 februarie 2008, 11:26 English | Regional Europe

On Monday, a first group of Ukrainians arrived in the Spanish village of Huelva to work in the upcoming agricultural campaign. They set up their legal contracts with Spanish farms while in Ukraine. The Ukrainians needed three days to travel to Spain, Spanish daily El Pais reads, quoted by Romanian monitoring agency Rador. However, their number is extremely low as compared to Spanish expectations.

The Spaniards hope to hire some 3,000 workers from Ukraine but until now only 43 of them have come to the country. A local authority said that out of the 3,000 people expected in his area, only 300 would eventually come.

He says that, on the one hand, it is possible that his association failed to choose the right cities to address the Ukrainians. Moreover, he adds that another important aspect is that the population was skeptical and could not believe that the conditions offered were real.

In Spain, some 12,000 Romanians, 4,000 Bulgarians and 3,500 Poles are working on strawberry farms according to official data.