Farms across Lithuania are relying increasingly on foreign workers, and farmers expect the trend to continue for years to come. The country's Vegetable Growers' Association says almost all farms are struggling to find staff, particularly for short-term work, driving a rise in the use of foreign labour-hire agencies.
According to Lithuania's Employment Service, more than 5,000 foreigners are now employed on the country's farms, with the majority coming from outside the EU, though numbers from within the bloc are also rising.
At one farm in the Kaunas district, a third of the workforce comes from Ukraine. Olha, one of the farm's Ukrainian workers, moved to Lithuania to be with her son, Andriy.
"I came to look after my granddaughter. After a month I decided to go out and work [...] We make meat rolls, sausages, we do all sorts of jobs in the workshop – if they need help in the dairy, we go there," she told LRT.
"[The farm owner] took us on, we work, the pay is good, the conditions are decent," said Andriy.
