All Foreign Seasonal Workers in Yeongju City Depart... 423 People Provide Great Support for Rural Labor Shortage

Best Practices from Local Selection to Return

Yeongju City in Gyeongbuk announced that the seasonal foreign workers project for this year was successfully concluded as 98 foreign seasonal workers departed on their final return journey on the 8th and 9th.

The City Agricultural Technology Center held a farewell ceremony for a total of 98 workers, including 77 seasonal workers from Rosales City, Philippines on the 8th, and 21 family-invited seasonal workers on the 9th. Farm owners and city officials expressed their gratitude to the workers who played a reliable role in the rural fields and shared a warm farewell time.

Foreign seasonal workers are lending a hand as farming partners at farms in the Yeongju area.

This year, Yeongju City hosted a total of 423 seasonal workers (cumulative). Among them, 293 workers from Rosales City and Mabalacat City in the Philippines, 101 family-invited workers who are marriage immigrants, and 29 public-type seasonal workers from Thai Binh Province in Vietnam supported the harvesting and sorting of Yeongju’s main crops such as ginseng, apples, and ginger, fulfilling the role of agricultural partners.

In particular, the public-type seasonal worker brokerage center, operated for the first time this year, achieved great results by mediating a total of 1,822 workers (cumulative) to 387 farms over three months. It helped reduce farmers’ labor cost burdens while supporting stable labor supply in rural areas. Next year, the number of workers to be hosted will be expanded by an additional 50.

Currently, applications for seasonal workers for the first half of 2025 have reached 501 workers from 167 farms, and including extension applications and additional applications for the second half, the scale of hosting is expected to expand compared to this year.

To secure excellent workers, the city plans to visit Rosales City, Philippines from the 16th to the 20th of this month to conduct local interviews and agricultural and health tests for next year’s seasonal worker recruitment.

Mayor Park Nam-seo of Yeongju said, “The foreign seasonal worker project has been a great help to farms struggling with rural aging and population decline,” adding, “We will provide a safe and stable working environment for seasonal workers next year as well. We will continue to strengthen policies to solve rural labor issues.”

Yeongju City is holding a farewell ceremony for Filipino seasonal workers departing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.