Press release No. N 028 of 5 May 2021
• Rheinland-Pfalz had the highest proportion of seasonal workers, Saarland the lowest
• The asparagus harvest was down by 10% in the corona year 2020
• 23% of asparagus was harvested in Niedersachsen
WIESBADEN – Asparagus is one of the most important seasonal vegetables in Germany and is mostly harvested by seasonal workers. Based on provisional data from the Census of Agriculture, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that there were approximately 272,000 seasonal workers in the total labour force in Germany's agriculture (937,000) in the reference period from March 2019 to February 2020, i.e. before the corona pandemic started. They represented 29%. The share of seasonal workers remained stable compared with the previous survey in 2016, when the proportion stood at 30%. Seasonal workers have a fixed-term employment contract for less than six months and are often employed to cover seasonal workload peaks.
