Germany’s soft fruit crops are rotting in the fields as the number of seasonal workers has declined significantly.

Since 2010, the official number of seasonal workers travelling to the country has declined from 330,000 to 286,000, according to German newspaper, die Zeit.

Almost two thirds of producers recently surveyed reported a reduction in seasonal worker numbers and one fifth said that they had distinctly fewer seasonal workers this year.

The article states that wages, safety and working conditions on the farms are principal factors in the decline as workers have found alternative employment in Germany, for example, delivering parcels, or in the case of Polish, Romanian and Bulgarian workers, better employment in their native country where economies are blooming and unemployment is at an all-time low.