Mar 30, 2017

Fruit Growers News survey: grower labor supply

Fruit Growers News asked readers four questions in January, seeking information on their labor supply. A sampling of the results is below.

Did you have enough labor in 2016?

No: 53 percent
Yes: 47 percent

If not, how short were you (as a percentage of workers needed)?

Responses ranged from 5 percent short to 100 percent short.

What did you do to make up the difference?

• Combined two crews to make up one full crew
• Advertised locally
• Hired from the Department of Labor
• Harvested for the process market
• Left fruit on the tree pickers
• Picked over more days at a slower pace and lost more fruit to rot because of it
• Temporary workers were provided through staffing agencies until quotas satisfied with direct hires
• Worked longer hours
• Used PGRs
• Took longer to harvest
• Picked some myself
• Paid more money
• Kept taking out trees
• Picked half days on Sundays and paid piece rate to improve harvest speed
• Hired more H-2A workers
• Asked for labor from another grower
• Took a financial loss/canceled orders
• Machine harvested
• Advertised at local Mexican grocery stores and ran Facebook ads for three weeks

What are your plans for labor in 2017?

• I have already started to recruit amongst local students
• Hire H-2A, hope Americans get a work ethic!
• Praying
• The same as every year .. hope for immigration reform that benefits me
• Direct hire with competitive wage/benefits/working environment
• Pay more (about $15 per hour orchard labor; $25 per hour harvest)
• Dozing a few more acres of trees out of production
• Purchased a harvester and will still use a limited number of hand pickers
• Same staffing unless the feds loosen up the border
• Out of ideas
• Beg growers to spare workers
• Cross my fingers, pay more if margins allow
• Sell the farm
• Apply ReTain on a portion of the crop to delay (and compact) harvest; use picking platform on some blocks of high-density blocks to speed harvest
• Improve labor efficiency, raise wages on picking
• Machine harvest when needed
  Grow fewer crops that require labor
• I will continue to cut back on labor and change the way we farm
• Recruit, recruit, recruit!
• We increased our housing by 20 percent; each costs around $13,500 per bed, which includes sewer, utilities and permitting
• Try to hire local workers
• Just family