Labor Shortage On Growers’ Minds This Harvest Season
October 7, 2014 “Everybody I know is short,” Dick Boushey, a Grandview wine grape grower tells the Tri-City Herald.
Warm weather has accelerated the ripening of crops and has created a bottleneck of needs for apples, grapes, and other crops — and record harvests are expected, to boot.
Labor shortages are also top of mind in Michigan, where growers are considering what to do with labor-intensive crops such as peaches and asparagus.
“We’re seeing the number of peach trees go down because there just isn’t enough labor,” Jamie Clover Adams, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, tells the Grand Rapid Business Journal .
Clover Adams says growers are considering planting cherries because they can be harvested mechanically.
“We have enough market uncertainty, like any business. But we also have weather uncertainty, and adding labor uncertainty is a real problem. We will have to adapt to changes,” Arthur Lister of Lister Orchards in Ludington, MI, tells the Business Journal.
Labor and the access to it is not the same as it once was, says Craig Anderson, manager of Agricultural Labor and Safety Services at the Michigan Farm Bureau.
“The traditional migratory stream that has harvested much of Michigan’s produce is changing,” he said.
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