A job offer for pruning pistachios on a farm in Albacete It has become a topic of conversation both inside and outside the agricultural sector. The announcement, disseminated through social media, has highlighted the growing difficulty in finding people willing to work in the fields, even when conditions that, on paper, appear competitive are offered.
The proposal comes from a pistachio farming of more than 1.000 hectares Located in the province of Albacete, the farm employs only three people during the peak pruning season. The farm management insists that they urgently need to reinforce the team, as the current workload and the projected workload for the coming months far exceeds the staff's capacity.
A large pistachio farm in Albacete is looking for up to 40 pruners
According to the young woman who made the offer go viral, a Romanian farm worker with experience in the area, the farm is located in expansion process and still has for planting around 200 hectares traditionalThis growth makes the need for labor especially high this season.
The farm is looking to incorporate Between 30 and 40 people for pistachio pruningThis is a significant figure considering that, at the time the video was recorded, there were only three workers managing the entire area. The advertisement repeatedly emphasizes the large scale of the offer and that there is work for several dozen people.
One of the aspects that has attracted the most attention is the Offered remuneration: 12,50 euros gross per hourThe worker herself emphasizes that it is a payment for time worked and not for output: "here it's not by tree or anything," she stresses, highlighting differences with other campaigns in the primary sector where the daily wage is calculated by box, by tree or by kilos harvested.
The employment, he explains, could be extended up to four months of continuous workThis provides a degree of stability within a seasonal environment like agriculture. It's not just a few isolated days, but a prolonged pruning campaign on a large farm.
Working conditions and requirements for pistachio pruning in Albacete
The content of the video and the offer emphasizes that No specific prior experience with pistachios is required.The farm is willing to teach on-site how to prune, provided that the hired people come with a willingness to learn and to work throughout the season.
The main task falls within the so-called training pruning of the pistachio treeThe instruction that is repeated to new workers is clear: the aim is to form the crown of the tree, and when the specimen does not yet have that defined structure, a [missing word - possibly "tree" or "tree"] is used as a reference cut located 90 centimeters from the groundThis intervention is crucial to guide the plant's growth and to ensure a good fruit production in the medium term.
Beyond the technical aspects, the operation sets one requirement that it considers non-negotiable: have all documentation in order in order to sign an employment contract in accordance with Spanish law. The young woman who posted the ad insists that the person's origin is irrelevant, as long as they can work legally: "We need people with papers," she emphasizes, making it clear that no distinction will be made based on nationality.
Furthermore, it is emphasized that the work is paid by the hour and that, in this case, There is no system of payment per tree, per piecework, or per objective.This nuance is especially relevant for those who have already worked in agricultural campaigns where income instability and pressure to produce more in less time are frequent.
Why is pruning so important in pistachio trees in La Mancha?
The activity offered in Albacete is not a minor task within the agricultural calendar. Pruning pistachio trees is one of the key tasks for the future of the crop., as it allows defining the tree structure, improving the production entry and optimize the quality and size of the fruit.
In the initial phases, as the farm owners point out, the aim is to... form a balanced cupwith well-distributed branches that ensure good lighting and ventilation. The reference cut at 90 centimeters from the ground serves to uniform the planting and establish a trunk height suitable for mechanization and for subsequent harvesting and maintenance work.
Proper pruning also contributes to reduce health problems This also prevents branch breakage due to excessive weight, which is crucial in extensive orchards where individual monitoring of each tree is more complex. For this reason, the Albacete farm requires a large team: the area to be treated and the importance of this phase of the cycle demand a large and relatively specialized workforce.
For many seasonal workers, pistachios have become a supplementary employment alternative to other crops in the area, such as Manchego garlic or nut trees. It is not uncommon for those participating in this campaign to combine different agricultural jobs throughout the year, adapting to the planting schedule of each crop in Castilla-La Mancha.
Albacete and Castilla-La Mancha, the epicenter of pistachio production in Spain
The context in which this pruning offer arises helps to understand why so many workers are needed. Castilla-La Mancha has established itself as the main pistachio-growing region in Spain.to the point of concentrating more than 80% of the national surface area dedicated to this nut.
In recent years, pistachios have gone from being an almost experimental crop to becoming what many farmers call “the green gold” of La ManchaThe combination of good adaptation to the continental climate, growing demand in the markets and relatively attractive prices has fueled a veritable planting frenzy.
The region has already surpassed 63.800 hectares of pistachioAnd in the 2024 season alone, some 3.500 new hectares were added. Provinces like Ciudad Real and Toledo lead in cultivated area, but Albacete has been gaining weight noticeablyprecisely thanks to large farms like the one that is now looking for staff for pruning.
This sustained growth implies that each year more is needed More hands needed for tasks such as planting, pruning, or maintaining the plotsAlthough some of the work can be mechanized, formative pruning still requires careful manual intervention, especially in the early years of the trees.
Labor shortage in the Spanish countryside
The call from this farm in Albacete, amplified by the video on social media, brings to the forefront a problem that is repeated in many parts of Spain: It is becoming increasingly difficult to fill agricultural jobseven when it comes to well-paid campaigns by industry standards.
Data from the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) has been warning for some time about mismatches between the supply and demand for employment in the primary sectorAmong the causes cited are the aging population in rural areas, the abandonment of family farms, and the lack of appeal that the countryside holds for younger generations.
Some farmers in Castilla-La Mancha offer similar examples to what is happening now with pistachio pruning. Young people like Mario Selo, an olive producer in the province of Toledo, acknowledge that “They can’t find Spaniards who want to work” in campaigns such as the olive harvest, even though it is possible to earn daily wages that, according to their testimonies, are around 70 euros.
In this context, the Spanish agricultural sector is increasingly relying on foreign laborReports on the affiliation of foreign workers to Social Security place the agricultural sector as the second economic sector with the largest presence of immigrants, around 250.000 non-national workers linked to agricultural and livestock activities.
The offer to prune pistachio trees in Albacete is not an exception, but rather another example of how Agricultural campaigns are increasingly dependent on workers from other countriesMany of them are already settled in Spain and have prior experience in the field. The requirement to "have papers," which is repeated in the advertisement, also reflects the need to formalize these employment relationships on a regular basis.
The urgent search for staff to prune pistachio trees on a large estate in Albacete summarizes several trends that are shaping the Spanish countryside today: The accelerated expansion of pistachio cultivation in Castilla-La Mancha, the crucial importance of tasks such as formative pruning, the growing difficulties in finding workers, and the dependence on foreign labor.All of this is concentrated in a specific offer, with hourly wages and a legal contract, which illustrates how an emerging and profitable crop also faces the challenge of finding those who will keep it going season after season.
