Sustainable Hazelnut Villages Türkiye

The hazelnut harvest period in Türkiye is short and labour intensive. Since mechanisation is costly and complex, many farmers rely on hired labour. Each year, the start of the summer harvest, August to the end of September, is signalled by the arrival of migrant workers and their families. Socio-economic conditions of seasonal migrant agricultural workers, child labour, lack of day-care facilities, challenges in access to healthcare and education, poor housing conditions and problems in ensuring decent employment and recruitment practices are some of the key issues affecting the migrant workforce in the hazelnut sector.

The social issues reported in hazelnut harvesting have complex socio-economic root causes that go beyond the farm level. Therefore, addressing the complex and multidimensional nature of child labour requires a coalition of multiple stakeholders and engagement with local communities to achieve lasting systemic change. 

In terms of envisioned impact, the goal of the project is reduced child labour and improved living and working conditions for seasonal migrant agricultural workers in two hazelnut growing areas in the Black Sea region. This will be achieved through:

• Effective and sustainable collaboration between identified regions' local authorities, communities and their leaders (mukhtars) in tackling child labour and improving workers’ living and working conditions;
• Children of seasonal migrant workers have access to improved play and learning opportunities which help close educational gaps;
• Improved working and living conditions of seasonal migrant workers;
• International, national and local hazelnut actors have improved systems in place to tackle child labour and initiate actions to tackle child labour using collaborative, area-based approaches; and
• The target group comprises not only seasonal migrant agricultural workers, their families and children, farmers and labour contractors but also relevant local authorities and organisations in these regions.

This project is being carried out by Rainforest Alliance together with Balsu Gıda Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.Ş., Durak Findik San. Ve Tic. A.S. and Intersnack Procurement B.V. The own contribution to this project is 121,311 euro.