Fruit Harvest Worker

You pick, sort and pack fruit in the orchard and in the packing shed. Picking starts at first light, in a team of ten behind the tractor and its trailer, filling crates to the grade the head grower sets and leaving anything marked or undersized on the tree. In the shed you feed the grading table, close and palletise the cases and keep the lot card with each pallet. Peak weeks add hours that are counted and paid as overtime. Hours are 05:30-13:00 in the July and August heat, with a longer afternoon in September.

No school certificate required, the farm teaches the job on day one

One season of picking, or other manual work outdoors

Fit for repeated bending, reaching and lifting crates of 15 kg

Careful hands, the fruit is graded and bruising is visible

Available from June to the end of October, six days a week in peak

Driving licence useful but not required

Basic English for instructions and safety signs

Net salary from 1478 up to 1626 EUR per month

Season contract from June to the end of October

Peak week hours counted and paid as overtime

A room on the farm at 60 EUR a month, water and power included

Cold drinking water, a shade tent and fruit at every break

Transport from the village to the orchard in the farm van

Gloves, hat, sun cream and rain gear provided

Pickers who come back for a second season are taken on as row leaders or moved to the grading table, and the farm keeps a core team on a longer contract for the winter pruning.

Open orchards and a shaded packing shed, with the hours moved to the early morning in the summer heat and a water point in every block. Gloves, a hat and sun protection are supplied by the farm.