Brazil moves R$ 15 billion per year in the mango, grape, and apple production chains, and has consolidated its position as the world's third-largest fruit producer. The sector, however, remains a billion-dollar industry through a process of exploiting rural workers, which includes labor rights violations, workforce disposal, and illness.
This is the conclusion of the study Dynamics of Rural Salaried Work, conducted by Oxfam Brasil and Molina Consulting, which analyzed rural work in the fruit-growing chains of the São Francisco Valley, in Pernambuco and Bahia, and the Serra Gaúcha, in Rio Grande do Sul.
"The export agribusiness perpetuates its financial growth supported by a mass of Brazilians treated as a temporary input, making any prospect of social advancement or job security impossible for those who cultivate the land in Brazil," says an excerpt from the study.
According to Oxfam Brasil's executive director, Viviana Santiago, the wealth generated by the sector's exports feeds on the historical vulnerability of rural workers.
"The study revealed a contradiction that we need to put on the table. The sector that profits in billions cannot share the wealth it produces. Quite the opposite, it produces this wealth through this exploitation," she said.
Agência Brasil contacted the Brazilian Association of Fruit Producers and Exporters (Abrafrutas) and is awaiting a response.
Lack of inspection
In Oxfam's assessment, the absence of inspections on farms is one of the elements contributing to the perpetuation of rights violations against agribusiness workers.
"Seasonal workers, who work mainly in harvesting, [have workdays of] more than 16 hours a day. In Rio Grande do Sul, they are exposed to extreme temperatures, of 8 or 9 degrees below zero," Viviana reports.
In the mango chain in the Northeast, workers are also exposed to long workdays, including uninterrupted ones.
"Often, these people cut back on water consumption and bathroom trips in order to meet the daily quota, resulting in immense illness."
In addition, the study points out that illness stemming from physical exhaustion, extreme cold, exposure to pesticides, and the lack of adequate equipment suffers chronic omission in the records of the Work Accident Reporting System (CAT).
The orchards of Pernambuco and Bahia also subject harvesters to continuous pesticide contamination. According to the study, union leaders in the São Francisco Valley estimate that only one formal case of poisoning is reported at health facilities for every fifty actual occurrences.
"This is possible because there is not enough inspection. We know the limits, in terms of staffing, at the Labor Public Prosecutor's Office (MPT). The number of people working there is insufficient, and this leaves a large number of farms uncovered," explained Viviana, who advocates for expanding the MPT's auditing capacity.
She adds that scheduled inspection visits give farms the opportunity to mask rights violations.
Importance of unions
The unions of these categories are fundamental to advancing the guarantee of workers' rights, as the study pointed out. However, these entities face obstacles in their capacity for collective organization given the high rate of informality, short-duration contracts, and seasonal migration.
According to Viviana, the work of rural unions needs to be strengthened.
"Unions have a vital role in this context of rights violations in the countryside, because they are able to act on a collective dimension. This adds a layer of protection for these workers, because it won't be one person negotiating their own rights," she said.
"When they are strengthened and manage to unionize workers, unions can secure better working conditions and pay through collective bargaining."
Workforce disposal
According to Oxfam, the reality in the export hubs shows that temporary formalization has absorbed the instability of the informal market. Having a formal work contract has not guaranteed stability for rural workers.
Of the 117,341 formal hires registered in the São Francisco Valley (BA/PE) and the Serra Gaúcha (RS) in 2024, in the mango, grape, and apple chains, only 39.2% were still active in December. In other words, six out of ten contracts end before the end of the year.
In the Serra Gaúcha, hiring peaks in January and February, while dismissals are concentrated in March. The harvest window attracts migratory flows from Mato Grosso and Paraguay. Indigenous people make up 21.4% of the workforce in Rio Grande do Sul's apple industry.
In the São Francisco Valley, the peak runs from July to October. According to Oxfam, these cycles are known, and their impacts could be mitigated by public policies and more strategic union actions.
In addition, according to the study, mechanization in the countryside is advancing and reducing jobs.
"The machine does in one week what 100 workers would do in a month. In mango, it reduced jobs by more than 40%," a union leader from the São Francisco Valley told researchers during data collection.
Abandonment
This scenario of labor violations is part of a context of high informality in the agricultural sector in general.
Oxfam's analysis estimates that seven out of ten (69.2%) workers in the entire sector work informally. This statistical figure therefore projects a future social collapse, since more than half (52%) of rural wage earners do not contribute to Social Security.
"A main point of vulnerability [in agriculture] is informality. But this deepens when there are [race and gender intersections], because, within this group of workers, Black women are in a situation of greater vulnerability than the rest of the group," Viviana mentioned.
The study shows that race and gender intersections have an impact on the pay structure in the countryside. Black women are at the bottom of the category's salary pyramid, with an average monthly income of R$ 1,449. White men, in the same activity, receive R$ 2,494.
The profile of the workforce also combines low wages with limited education. More than half of those employed did not complete elementary school, which compromises the possibilities of occupational mobility.