Taiwan to boost agricultural migrant worker quota to 20,000

Taipei, Sept. 13 (CNA) The Ministry of Labor (MOL) said Friday that the quota of agricultural migrant workers in the country will be increased to 20,000, from the current 12,000.

The additional agricultural migrant workers will be assigned to crop farming, livestock farming, and "outreach agricultural services," the ministry said.

Prior to the decision by the MOL's cross-border workforce policy consultation committee on Friday, the ministry had a quota of 12,000 agricultural migrant workers.

There were already 8,505 workers in the country as of June, and the MOL had anticipated that at least another 3,500 would arrive by the end of the year.

With the committee agreeing to an additional 8,000 workers, the total number in that category will increase to 20,000, according to the MOL.

Su Yu-kuo (蘇裕國), head of the ministry's Cross-Border Workforce Management Division, told reporters Friday that 4,000 workers will be assigned to crop farms, 2,000 to livestock farms, and 2,000 to "outreach agricultural services," under which NGOs or cooperatives usually manage workers and assign them to businesses that need help with agricultural tasks.

Taiwan started a pilot program for foreign agricultural workers in 2019, with an approved quota of 800, which was increased to 12,000 last year, Agriculture Minister Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) said in a report to the legislative Economics Committee in June.

The proposal to increase the quota to 20,000 was put forth by the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), to address the labor shortages in the country, and was approved Friday by the MOL's cross-border workforce policy consultation committee, Su said after the committee meeting.

The increase will be accompanied by other measures, such as allowing turfgrass industry business owners to apply for agricultural migrant workers with certain requirements on a business scale, Su said without giving a timeline.

The sectors of sprout, edible mushroom, and rice seedling cultivation will also benefit from the increase in agricultural migrant workers and relaxed eligibility requirements, he said.