Is the output of cheese agriculture good? Taiwan's cheese agriculture will be opened to foreign migrant workers as soon as early January.

What about the work of cheese farming? Chen Jizhong, chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said that cheese farming is a 3D industry, and people are less willing to engage in it, so they are open to foreign migrant workers. Let's take a look.

Cheese farming has long working hours, heavy work burden, and the environment is dirty, so the problem of labor shortage is serious. The Council of Agriculture has subsidized the employment wages of dairy farmers in the past two years, but the monthly salary is still 40,000 yuan. It has applied to the Ministry of Labor to open up foreign migrant workers. The quota is set at 400, limited to more than 80 dairy cows, excluding agricultural enterprises. If approved by the Ministry of Labor in early January, it will become the second agricultural category in Taiwan to open up foreign migrant workers after the fishing industry.

It is estimated that 400 people will be opened, excluding agricultural enterprises.

The Council of Agriculture held a "press conference on the achievements of improving the shortage of workers in agriculture" this afternoon and took the initiative to throw out the news and applied to the Ministry of Labor for the opening of foreign migrant workers in the dairy industry. Fan Meiling, director of counseling, said that the originally proposed demand for foreign migrant workers in cheese agriculture was adjusted to 470 after assessment, and together with about 50 people in the agricultural manpower and animal husbandry delegation of the Council of Agriculture, it is planned to apply to the Ministry of Labor for a trial quota of 400 people.

According to the plan of the Council of Agriculture, the number of cows in livestock farms applying for foreign migrant workers must reach 80, and one person can only apply for one animal farm. Excluding agricultural enterprises, as long as there is a dairy farm that has set up a company, they are not allowed to apply for foreign migrant workers.

Why give priority to opening up cheese agriculture to apply for foreign migrant workers? Chen Jizhong, acting chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said that dairy farmers are a "3D industry" (Dangerous, Dirty, Difficult, dangerous, messy, and difficult), and ordinary Chinese are reluctant to work. In addition, dairy farms work 365 days a year, so they are a single employer, so there is no need to worry about migrant workers not working during the off-season.

According to the trial calculation of the Council of Agriculture, if foreign migrant workers are to be opened up, their wages must comply with the basic starting salary of NT $20, 3100 under Taiwan's labor law, and they will have to bear the cost of food, accommodation and employment, and the estimated labor cost is about NT $30, 000.

Fan Meiling said that if the Ministry of Labor is examined and approved in January, applications can be opened, and the country of origin of migrant workers still needs to be discussed with the Ministry of Labor.

Cheese agriculture applied for migration, and the Ministry of Labor called back in 2016.

In fact, as early as 2016, the Council of Agriculture applied to the Ministry of Labor to open up foreign migrant workers for cheese agriculture, but on October 27 of the same year, the Cross-border Labor Policy Consultative Group of the Ministry of Labor decided to shelve the application, hoping that the Council of Agriculture would give priority to the use of domestic manpower and strengthen the matchmaking of domestic labor force.

In the past two years, the Council of Agriculture subsidized cheese farming with a monthly salary of 8,800 yuan, and it is expected that the monthly salary will reach 40,000 yuan, but not many people are willing to invest in it. Therefore, Fan Meiling believes that there is a good chance that the Ministry of Labor will approve the application this time.

Milkers in dairy farms have to milk the cows at 5: 00 in the morning and do it again at 3: 00 or 4: 00 in the afternoon. Employers are usually reluctant to hire two shifts. Is there a problem of long working hours if foreign migrant workers are allowed to work?. The Council of Agriculture stressed that the employment of foreign migrant workers must comply with the labor law, and if they work eight hours a day, they must be paid overtime pay. If employers require migrant workers to be responsible for milking sooner or later, they should be allowed to rest in the middle, which cannot be counted as working hours.

Targeting the new south to the country, pushing farm internships and working holidays

In addition to opening up cheese farming to apply for foreign migrant workers, the Council of Agriculture has also targeted the young labor force in Southeast Asian countries to conduct the "Technical Internship training Program for Young Farmers and elites in Taiwan," and selected young Indonesians to come to Taiwan for internships on farms for a minimum of 12 months. the longest is 24 months, and it is expected that 300 people will be offered on a trial basis this year, and the first batch of them will register in July.

Fan Meiling says that these Indonesian young people must have agricultural experience in their own country. after coming to Taiwan, they use the rural manpower dispatch center system, with farmers' groups, NGO groups, or professional units to assist in training, accommodation, and arranging jobs. For example, they first go to various experimental and improvement fields to develop skills, and then mediate to various farms for internship. The farm must submit an annual skills internship plan to assist in accommodation and provide a living allowance.

The Council of Agriculture has also launched a farm worker holiday program for new southward countries: Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc., with an estimated annual limit of 200 people per country and a visa stay of 180 days, which can be extended once for up to one year.

Fan Meiling said that all the application documents have been prepared, waiting for the results of negotiations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and foreign libraries, and the number of recommendation documents will be issued according to the proportion of agricultural workers in each county and city.

Chen Jizhong: foreign migrant workers will not be allowed to compete for jobs with Taiwanese

The Council of Agriculture has introduced foreign labor on a large scale. Chen Jizhong stressed that this does not mean that we should greatly open up agricultural foreign workers and crowd out the policies now being pushed. "(opening up migrant workers) cannot violate the principle of supplement and cannot compete with domestic workers and new residents for jobs. "

He said that the Agriculture and Food Administration has taken stock of the labor shortage and mechanization needs of all crops and the animal husbandry industry, and even tea, which is very difficult to mechanize, has machinery, and in the future it will move towards automation and mechanization to solve the problem of labor shortage.

Fan Meiling, director of the guidance department of the Council of Agriculture, points out that the Council of Agriculture has set up a manpower activation regiment, which set up a total of 91 regiments in 107th, recruiting 1935 people, working more than 270000 person-days and serving more than 4,000 farms. A mechanical farming team was set up in 107. this year, it focuses on leafy vegetables, heading vegetables, flax, onions, pineapples and mating machinery. And cooperate with Taichung City, Chiayi City, Kaohsiung City, Pingtung County and other counties and municipal governments to strengthen the agricultural manpower platform scheduling mechanism.