Half of Spain’s grape crop is in danger of rotting on the vine because bureaucratic bungling and national fears over a flood of immigrants from Eastern Europe have meant that there is no seasonal labour to pick the grapes.

Normally, thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians come to Spain to do the work, which began this week. However, in Castilla La Mancha, a rural swath of Spain south of Madrid, one of the biggest grape harvests in the world is in danger of descending into chaos amid rising tensions between the incomers and Spaniards.

Last month the mayor of La Herrera, a town in Albacete province, part of Castilla La Mancha, ordered the expulsion of 2,000 Romanians who were camped on the outskirts of the town. The mayor had no legal right to expel the Romanians, who as European Union citizens can legally reside anywhere in Spain, but they moved on at the request of the police. The same happened to thousands more Romanians in nearby Llanos del Caudillo. They were part of the up to 20,000 foreigners who come to Spain to pick about 2.7 million kilos of grapes, but this year many have been prevented from working and have remained in Spain, kicking their heels.

In an attempt to avoid an influx of immigrants, Spain recently passed a law that Spanish companies looking to employ Romanians and Bulgarians must contract them in their own country. Seasonal work, such as grape-picking, is exempted, but Spanish companies must still prove that the work is seasonal and any foreign workers will return to their homelands once the harvest is gathered. Spanish farmers failed to organise the paperwork in time.

The Spanish labour inspectorate filed 220 complaints against farmers for illegal employment. Faced with nobody to pick the grapes, farmers threatened to disregard the law, but Jésus Caldera, the Spanish Labour Minister, refused to back down and sent more employment inspectors. Now, bureaucrats are working against the clock to process 12,000 applications as the harvest begins.

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