This is no longer merely a problem for individual orchard owners or growers. In recent years, the issue of labour shortages in agriculture has regularly returned to public debate, especially during strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, apple, and seasonal vegetable harvests. Agriculture is simultaneously being affected by several overlapping trends: the ageing of rural Poland, the outflow of young people into other industries, the labour migration of Poles to Western Europe, and growing competition for seasonal workers across the European Union.
In practice, this means that Polish agriculture is becoming increasingly dependent on labour migration.
The shortage of seasonal workers is not solely a matter of wages. Harvest work remains one of the most physically demanding forms of seasonal employment. In many cases, it involves working outdoors for long hours, often in high temperatures, performing repetitive tasks under significant time pressure.
Additionally, the seasonal nature of the work means that many people do not see it as a stable source of income. Fewer and fewer Polish workers are willing to undertake physically demanding work for only several weeks or months, especially when other sectors – such as logistics, warehousing, manufacturing, or hospitality – offer more predictable forms of employment.
At the same time, the Polish labour market has been struggling with worker shortages for years. According to ManpowerGroup reports, 66% of employers in Poland report difficulties filling positions. This problem affects not only highly specialised industries, but also simple and seasonal jobs.
Agriculture is also losing the wage competition against Western Europe. For years, seasonal migration from Poland “to pick asparagus” in Germany or to work in fruit harvesting in the Netherlands, Belgium, or Scandinavia has been a well-known phenomenon. For many workers, even a short-term seasonal job abroad remains financially more attractive than agricultural work in Poland.
This creates a paradox typical of contemporary Central and Eastern Europe. Poland was historically a country of labour emigration, yet it now increasingly depends on migrant workers to maintain its own economy – including agriculture.
In recent years, foreign workers have become one of the foundations of seasonal employment in Poland. This applies primarily to Ukrainian citizens, but also to workers from Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Nepal, India, and Central Asian countries.
Data from the Polish Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy show that the seasonal work permit system operates on a large scale. The ministry regularly publishes statistics regarding seasonal work permits issued to foreigners in sectors such as agriculture, horticulture, and hospitality.
Polish regulations regarding seasonal work permits allow foreign nationals to work for up to nine months within a calendar year. This system was designed specifically for sectors heavily dependent on seasonality – above all agriculture.
Before the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian workers were by far the dominant group of seasonal employees. After 2022, however, the situation became more complicated. Some Ukrainian citizens settled permanently in Western European countries, many men were unable to leave Ukraine, and competition among EU member states for available workers intensified.
As a result, Polish employers increasingly turned towards more distant migration destinations, including South Asia and Central Asia. The challenge is that recruiting workers from these regions is more time-consuming, more expensive, and significantly more dependent on the efficiency of visa procedures.
Public debate in Poland often presents migration primarily through the lens of security, politics, or ideological disputes. Meanwhile, for many sectors of the economy, migration is first and foremost an economic issue.
Agriculture is one of the clearest examples of this dependency. In the case of seasonal work, the problem is not that employers prefer foreign workers over Polish citizens. The problem is that in many regions there are simply not enough people willing to perform this kind of work.
In practice, many farmers today face a difficult choice: either hire foreign workers or reduce production.
This is particularly visible in sectors requiring rapid and timely harvesting. Soft fruit, vegetables, and many orchard crops have a very short harvesting window. If workers are unavailable even for several days, part of the crop may be lost.
For farms, this means direct financial losses, but the consequences may be much broader.
The most obvious consequence of labour shortages is the declining profitability of agricultural production. If farms cannot harvest crops on time, part of the production is simply wasted.
In the longer term, this may lead to:
Small and medium-sized farms are particularly vulnerable to staffing shortages. Large agricultural businesses have greater capacity to organise accommodation, transportation, and professional international recruitment. Smaller producers often cannot compete organisationally.
Labour shortages may also accelerate the automation of agriculture. However, many harvesting tasks – especially involving soft fruit – remain difficult to automate fully. Even technologically advanced farms still require large numbers of seasonal workers.
Discussions about seasonal workers often seem distant from the everyday concerns of urban residents. In reality, however, the effects of labour shortages in agriculture quickly reach supermarket shelves.
Fewer workers mean lower harvesting capacity and higher production costs. This directly affects the prices of fruit, vegetables, and processed food products.
If labour shortages continue to deepen, Poland may become increasingly dependent on imported food and agricultural semi-finished products. This would make the market more vulnerable to international price fluctuations, logistical disruptions, and broader economic crises.
In practice, therefore, the issue of seasonal workers affects not only farmers, but also food security and price stability.
Only a few years ago, Poland was considered one of the most attractive labour markets in the region for migrants. Today, the situation is gradually changing.
Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavian countries are competing more aggressively for seasonal workers. They offer higher wages, more stable employment conditions, and often more predictable administrative procedures.
This is especially important for workers who already have experience with seasonal employment in Europe. Such candidates increasingly compare not only wages, but also:
If Poland loses this administrative and organisational competition, labour shortages may continue to deepen despite relatively strong interest in labour migration.
Public debate regularly includes calls for greater automation or increased activation of domestic workers. In practice, however, it is difficult to imagine Polish agriculture becoming fully independent from foreign labour in the coming years.
Demographic trends are clear. Poland’s population is ageing, while the number of working-age people is declining. At the same time, fewer people are willing to perform physically demanding agricultural work.
As a result, labour migration is becoming not merely an addition to the labour market, but one of the conditions necessary to maintain certain sectors of the economy.
Agriculture is one of the most visible examples of this dependency. Without access to seasonal workers, many farms would be unable to maintain their current production scale.
Problems with seasonal harvesting reveal a broader process taking place within the Polish economy. More and more industries – from manufacturing and logistics to hospitality and agriculture – now depend heavily on foreign labour.
At the same time, public debate on migration often ignores the economic consequences of limiting access to foreign workers.
In agriculture, the consequences would become visible almost immediately: insufficient labour for harvesting, crop losses, rising production costs, and further increases in food prices.
This is why the discussion about labour migration is no longer solely about migration policy. Increasingly, it is becoming a question about the ability of the Polish economy to maintain production capacity, competitiveness, and food security.
