A decision by the Chilean government not to adjust the clock to wintertime will result productivity losses to the fruit industry of up to 15 per cent according to national producer organisation Fedefruta.
In January, energy minister Maximo Pacheco announced that Chile would remain indefinitely on its own unique time schedule rather than switching the clocks back for one hour from the second week of March, as is the usual custom. The government argued that the resulting longer evenings would lead to improvements in the quality of life and help promote the proper use of energy.
But the fruit industry has been one of the big losers since the darker mornings mean work cannot start until later.
“[In the Aconcagua Valley] it is still dark at half past seven and workers are stuck at the farm entrance waiting for it to get light,” said Fedefruta president Juan Carolus Brown. “We are losing around 45 minutes every day, equivalent to 15 per cent of total working hours or 15 per cent of our productivity.”
Fedefruta argues that the change is also causing significant hardship to farm workers who are paid an hourly rate and have therefore seen their wages fall.
Antonio Walker Prieto of Empresa Agropecuaria Wapri and also president of Fruseptima and director of Fedefruta claimed the government should not have made the decision without consulting the agricultural sector, which generates employment for 850,000 people. Wapri has had to change the starting hour for work during the apple harvest from 8am to 8.30.
“We have had many complaints from workers. They understand that we have no choice but the truth is that we have had to change our entire operation in the field,’ Walker said.
Pacheco defended the government’s decision, saying: “In winter there are ten hours of daylight and in the summer there are 14. That is nothing to do with the government or with the Energy Ministry, it’s down to nature. We can either add the light to the beginning or the end of the day”.
MPs belonging to Chile’s Democratic Christian party called on the government to recognise its mistake and restore the winter schedule. “The only thing we see is a huge deterioration in the quality of life of Chileans who have to leave their homes in darkness and return in darkness,” said party leader Ricardo Rincón.
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