Berrypickers, unite!

THOUSANDS of Thais are arriving in northern Sweden on temporary work visas—to pick berries. Sweden’s right of public access gives anybody the right to pick wild berries, even on private land. In a good year (which this is unlikely to be), the forests are abundant with blueberries and red cowberries. Few Swedes are now up for the hard work of picking, yet demand is rising. Wild blueberries are much sought after by the health-food industry: four-fifths of Sweden’s delicious blueberries are exported.

The result is controversy at home and abroad. The berry companies turned to Asia ten years ago. Many Thais now come over for the berry season. This year 5,700 visas were approved, the most ever, all for Thais. Yet the confederation of Swedish trade unions (LO) calls berrypicking “modern slavery”. When berries are scarce, pickers often cannot cover the costs of plane tickets, food and lodging. Thord Ingesson, who covers migration at LO, complains that Sweden has “lost control over workplace conditions as global labour has become a cheap commodity”.