Yeongju City, 76 Seasonal Workers from Rosales City, Philippines Arrive for the First Time

A total of 452 to arrive in the first half of the year
At the forefront of solving rural labor shortages

Yeongju City, Gyeongbuk Province (Mayor Park Nam-seo) will officially launch the ‘2025 Foreign Seasonal Worker Program’ starting on the 6th with the arrival of 76 seasonal workers from Rosario City, Philippines, to address labor shortages caused by rural aging and to secure sustainable agricultural competitiveness.

The workers arriving this time are from Rosario City, Philippines, which has an international friendship exchange agreement with Yeongju City. Among them, 52 are verified workers who were recommended for re-entry by farm owners after diligently working last year.

Accordingly, farms will be able to secure reliable labor, and workers can be immediately deployed to farm work without separate training, which is expected to result in high satisfaction among employing farms.

A total of 452 foreign seasonal workers will be recruited by Yeongju City in the first half of this year. Among them, 269 farm-type workers are from Rosario City, Philippines, 41 from Laos, and 92 through family invitations of marriage immigrants. Additionally, 50 public-type workers are expected to arrive through a business agreement with Vietnam. They will arrive sequentially in seven batches during the first half of the year and be stably assigned to agricultural sites in Yeongju City.

Regarding the workers from Laos, they are newly recruited this year in response to many farm requests last year, with 41 scheduled to arrive by the end of March. This will enable customized labor allocation according to farm preferences, enhancing the stability and diversity of agricultural labor management.

Furthermore, the re-entry recommendation system is being strengthened to allow skilled workers to continuously work at the same farms. Through this, the plan is to increase agricultural productivity while further solidifying trust between farms and workers.

Starting in April, Yeongju City plans to operate a ‘Public-type Foreign Seasonal Worker Brokerage Center.’ This center will be operated by Anjeong Nonghyup, which will directly employ foreign workers, provide lodging and meals, and dispatch workers to farms in need of labor for a certain usage fee. Farms wishing to use the public-type seasonal worker brokerage center can contact Anjeong Nonghyup.

Mayor Park Nam-seo stated, “Foreign seasonal workers play a key role in creating a sustainable agricultural environment through long-term cooperation with farms beyond simple labor support. In particular, starting this year, we will stabilize the operation of the public-type foreign seasonal worker brokerage center, promote systematic labor management, reduce the burden on farms, and create a stable farming environment.”