Labor Remains A Pressing Issue For Specialty Crop Growers

If not the top issue, labor is one of the most pressing issues for fruit and vegetable growers in the the Northwest, and nationwide.

“Fruits and vegetables are extremely perishable, and they're extremely fragile," said Samantha Ayoub, agricultural economist for the International Fresh Produce Association. "So, a lot of the production done on specialty crop farms in the United States is still reliant on manual labor, and so this is constant year-round, between harvest and all the inputs that go into planting, and to trimming orchards, so it's vital that we have a stable workforce year-round for these folks. For specialty crop producers, up to 40% of their production expenses are spent on labor alone, so it's a huge part of these folks' businesses.”

Much Has Changed In 40 Years

What kind of solutions is the International Fresh Produce Association advocating for?

“The H-2A temporary ag worker program is the pinnacle agricultural labor program for migrant workers into the United States, and that has been 40 years since it's seen any sort of reforms to that program." Ayoub said. "I think we can all agree that not much is the same today as it was in 1986, and there are reforms that are much needed to both expand access to that program for workers like greenhouses that don't fall into the seasonal categorization, as well as making sure that it's streamlined for folks to use, and has a reliable, predictable wage structure.”

Changes Made By The Administration Last Fall Have Helped

Ayoub added specialty crop producers are under a lot of pressure to get this labor situation straightened out once and for all.

“Like I said, 40% of production expenses for fruit and vegetable crop producers go to labor alone," Ayoub said. "We are really fortunate to see and thankful for the new interim final rule on H-2-A wages that came out last October, and are hoping to see that made permanent through rulemaking and legislation going forward to make sure that wages are reliable and predictable for producers. As we know, they're facing economic pressures across the board, with rising input costs in multiple categories and falling crop prices in the crop production farm gate value.”

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