Portugal is a country in south-western Europe, in the western part of the Iberian Peninsula, to the south and west of Spain. The Atlantic Ocean surrounds it on three sides. Its capital and largest city is Lisbon.

Agriculture is one of the main sources of income in Portugal's economy. In 2017, 26 per cent of mainland Portugal was farmland; on that basis, 2,340,914 hectares of land are now used for farming.

The panic and instability that the coronavirus pandemic brought to the world labour market in 2020 was felt in Portugal too. For the past year and a half the pandemic has hit Portugal's tourism and farm industries. Hotels, restaurants and many tourism-related businesses closed, and several thousand migrants lost their jobs during this difficult time.

To help the economy recover after the pandemic, the Portuguese government is now giving priority to farming. At this moment, Bangladeshis have found places in farm work, construction, dairy farms, milking farms, poultry farms, greenhouses and other sectors.

Workers from many countries now work in Portugal's farm sector, notably from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka in South Asia, and from Brazil, Romania and many African countries. In the past, Nepali workers were the most preferred in South Asia for farm work, but they have not kept that reputation. Migrant Bangladeshis have taken their place, and today they have a very good name as farm workers in Portugal.

Habibullah, a Bangladeshi migrant worker in Guimaraes, Porto, said: "About 25 Bangladeshis work here, along with some workers from Nepal and India. About 35 to 40 people work at our agriculture company. Saturday and Sunday are official holidays. When I first came to this company there were only eight Bangladeshi workers, but now almost all the workers are Bangladeshi. If the company needs someone new, Bangladeshi workers get priority."

Dulal Ahmed, in Milfontes, said migrants work for agriculture companies producing raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, grapes, olives, apples, malta oranges and other fruit. "We tend the trees, spray pesticides, sort out rotten and dead fruit, and pick fruit from the trees and pack it," he said. The work runs from March to November, nine months in all. There is no work in the other three months, when many migrants go home on leave.

Portugal's farming areas are several hundred kilometres from the capital, Lisbon. Notable among them are Milfontes, Faro, Tavira, Guimaraes, Braga, Leiria, Coimbra and Aveiro. Every company provides good accommodation and food for workers. Some of the work is risky, so insurance is compulsory for each worker.

Under current Portuguese law, a worker's minimum monthly wage is 740.83 euros. Pay for farm workers varies from company to company, but a worker earns at least 4.50 euros an hour and can work 8 hours a day for 22 days a month. That comes to 176 hours (8 x 22), or 792 euros a month. Eleven per cent of this goes to the government as tax. Each company must also give its workers 4.50 euros a day for food.

Source: Bangladesh Pratidin. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.