UPDATE: Russia sends students, mulls sending convicts to fields

(rewrites story)

MOSCOW, Apr 8 (PRIME) -- The Russian Agriculture Ministry has sent agricultural universities’ students and is discussing sending prisoners to the seasonal field works because entry restrictions for foreigners deprived agriculture of workers, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Due to the existing restrictions on entry of foreigners to the Russian Federation, the Agriculture Ministry is working together with the agricultural authorities of the Russian regions on replenishing the personnel with the internal labor reserves for the 2020 harvest, including vegetables, gourds, fruit and berries,” the ministry said.

The Union of Berry Producers of Russia asked the ministry to develop measures to allow seasonal foreign workers to enter the country, or there would be no one to harvest berries in Russia.

The producers need about 20 people per hectare to harvest berries, and the largest producers have to attract hundreds of people from the CIS states each year. The Union said it cannot attract Russians because the plantations are in remote locations, while mobility of Russians is traditionally very low.

The ministry also plans to replenish personnel through the regional employment services by employing people who lost their jobs on other economic sectors due to the coronavirus pandemic, through the agricultural universities by attracting up to 11,000 students to the field works, and through the Federal Penitentiary Service by attracting convicts.

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