WE WENT TO PICK RASPBERRIES: 12 hours a day for 1.500 dinars! And here's what it was like!

Picking raspberries has become a most wanted job in the past few years.

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There is a great supply and demand, but the prices and wages are low. If according to speculation, this year, a kilogram of raspberries is - 100 dinars, we beg the question- whether it is affordable to pick raspberries for others?

To make sure whether it is really true that the painstaking work of 12 hours a day, on the largest sun, with a daily wage of 1.500 dinars, we decided to visit some of the big farms.

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And here's how we spent the day:

- I was looking for work around Arilje, the villages of Ivanjica and Uzice. The price for which I would work is 3.500 or 4.000 dinars. People told me that there is "no way" that no one could earn that much, even those who have been picking for years, but I confidently went to check it out.

When you visit the Zlatibor area, through meadows and fields,there are rows of planted raspberries everywhere ... The villagers say that they live thanks to it, they process the land throughout the entire year, and that the harvest starts in late June and lasts for more than a month.

Serbia's agricultural land and the cultivation of raspberries has become a lucrative business, making it a serious one that earns thousands of euros.

But when it comes to salaries, as we have assured ourselves, there they hide it ... There are excuses, how much your accommodation and food costs them, and God knows what else ...

Finally, your "real" wage for a day turns out to be 1.500-2.000 dinars.

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Foto: agropartner.rs

- Hello, I'd like to volunteer to pick raspberries, if you have not already found workers, as the harvest has already begun - over the fence, I ask a middle-aged woman who told me she has a large raspberry farm and that she needs workers.

- Have you ever picked raspberries, how many can you pick? - with a strained look she asks.

- I can pick alot - I say, and I pray to God she does ask me how many crates, or how much weight because I came only for reconnaissance.

- I do not know, then come next week, and we'll see - eyeing me the Arilje native replies, asking me what I study and where I come from.

Avoiding these answers, I ask quickly:

- How much do you pay? What is the daily wage?

- Well, how much would you work for? We usually give 1.500 dinars, accommodation and meals are provided - she replies in a normal tone as if she said: "I will give you 1.500 dinars to count the rows."

- Excuse me?!1.500 dinars?! - I answer stunned - but do you how much work there is for that much money? I have to go in between shrubs and trees, with red hands from the raspberries?

Foto-ilustracija: Foter/Mrs Magic

- Well, that's right, that's how everyone picks! Your room and board cost me 2.500 dinars ... I can not give you more than that - she replies shrugging her shoulders.

- You know what, I would work for about 4.000. That's how much I need for basic life, and to buy myself something from all that hard work - I start telling her.

- Please, 4.000? Well, cold storage workers do not earn that much, you aren't gathering tobacco! - she looks at me in shock.

- Well, I think that's how much workers should have, working at a temperature of 30 degrees under the open sky all day, you get a sunburn - I continue my own, she nods and shakes her head and at the end we do not agree to anything.

Working for 1500 dinars, all day, makes no sense to me. For that kind of money I can do promotions in a market, for four hours. Along the way I visited some houses in Arilje. Some laughed at me, and some began doing the math for my daily allowance:

- My young dear, it is not that easy. The price per kilo is 25 dinars, so multiply and divide. If you want 4.000 dinars, you would have to pick about 150 kilos, which is not feasible every day - with a smile, an old experienced raspberry picker advised me.

A mountainous region, houses lined up beside each other, and on the other side a huge field. But earnings too small - where to find more. I thought that I will not find any offer of more than 2000 per day, but when you least expect it, it happens.

That house is a real villa in the Arilje village. I stopped by, persuaded by the neighbors, they say they pay well, and have a hectare in raspberries.

And people are hospitable and smiling. I tell them that I need a seasonal job, that picking raspberries seems like the best solution, but I will not pick for 1,500 dinars. and I say what price would be realistic.

Foto: sxc.hu/_marta_

- I expect 3.500-4.000 per day - I say firmly, waiting for his reaction, and he rubs his head and agrees.

- Well, well, that's how much we pay our workers, the raspberry field is large but you have to pick a good day's wages for that - with a smile, a young man patted me on the shoulder - And now let's go to the raspberry field so you can see what it looks like, it's a 15 minute drive.

During the ride, we talk about the harvest, how demanding the job is...

Miodrag has had raspberries for the past 15 years, constantly expanding them, now, the harvest has ten employees, who work for a daily wage. Sometimes his family helps out, but because of all the obligations on the farm, they do not have much time.

Foto: flickr/lchunt, Telegraf

- I pay the workers more than others here, they are happy and harvest properly. Good profit at the end of the harvest, workers cost me a lot, but at least I know that they have picked every raspberry and put it in the crate- he happily ends the conversation.

And then we arrived at the destination.

My shock was never ending! Well, people you do not know what this was !!!  These were rows - 50 meters long, and when you look at the bottom fields, raspberries are endless. Not to mention 100 degrees and bugs buzzing all over the place.

I look at the raspberry pickers, four in a row, with hats, sun-kissed by the sun and picking ... They probably only see red in front of their eyes.

- This work should be paid 50 euros! Picking from dawn until dusk was physically hard to take - I think to myself while I admire the people who serve this pace.

And what is waiting for me, I refuse to even imagine...

(Telegraf.co.uk)