Working in the vineyards, problematical situation in Italy

Pandemic or not, nature does not stop and the vineyard and agriculture need competent and skilled workers to continue their work. But in the last few days, the controversy surrounding this subject has become persistent: Martin Foradori Hofstätter, a famous winemaker from Termeno, had to hire a plane to take a group of workers specialized in vineyard work from Romania, because he could not find equally skilled personnel in Italy. And so we started talking again about the importance of manpower, a subject that may have been on the sidelines for too long. Marco Simonit, head of Simonit&Sirch, a leading company in training in vineyard treatment and pruning, also talked about the subject, with a simple and clear call: "Italians, do you want to work in the vineyard? Get ready, learn, there's work for everyone! The problem - says Marco Simonit - comes dramatically to the fore in this moment of pandemic, which has blocked the borders. Nature doesn't stop, the farms need skilled and skilled labour in the vineyards and they can't find it in Italy, because the Italians are ruining these jobs, even though there's a lot of talk about returning to agriculture, green work and so on. It is claimed that after this pandemic we will have to start again - Simonit continues - from the land and agriculture, which will once again take centre stage, and I fully agree. But the Italians are absent. It is necessary to recreate a "know-how in the vineyard" which they are losing and which is therefore necessarily entrusted to foreigners. This is not the case, for example, in France, where the skills in the vineyard are as important as those in the cellar, and the staff involved in agricultural work is local, has a lot of experience and preparation and adds value to a business'.

An issue that is certainly not the result of the global emergency we are now experiencing, which has, as it were, only brought an existing problem to the surface, but has never been fully addressed. "To create a real Made in Italy wine - Simonit concludes - we have to start here, working between the rows of vines. Sustainable work, local, with no impact on the environment, healthy because it's done in the open air and, in these times, also safe because it's easy to keep the distance. I can only repeat: prepare yourself, learn. In wineries, there is work for as long as you want it".