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Central valley growers struggle with farmworker shortage by ferujkll sdff
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Central valley growers struggle with farmworker shortage |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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Growers around the Central Valley are wringing their hands as theystruggle to find the manpower they need, though the situationappears better in Stanislaus County. Anti-immigration laws and policies, an aging population and even araging drug war south of the border are contributing to a slowdownin the pipeline of Mexican workers. Steward, president of the Sacramento County Farm Bureau, said hehas only a fraction of the 40 workers he depends on to tend the1,000 acres of vineyards he manages in Amador and San Joaquincounties. "I've never seen it this bad," he said, though he's heard there are"a lot of good workers who are busy picking cherries." But cherrygrowers say their labor situation is only marginally better. Laborers available to harvest San Joaquin County's lucrative cherrycrop are down as much as 30 percent, according to the county's farmbureau.
Situation OK in Stanislaus Stanislaus County has not had much trouble, said Wayne Zipser,executive manager of its farm bureau. The county is the nation'sleading producer of apricots, a hand-harvested crop now in season,but its cherry crop is much smaller than San Joaquin County's. Stanislaus relies on hand labor for its sizable peach crop, whichwill start to be harvested next month. Ceres-area grower Scott Longsaid he has not had a problem finding workers.
"We're fortunate enough right now to be able to cover everything,and hopefully that goes through harvest time," he said. The county's grape crop is mostly harvested by machine, unlikepremium regions. So too are the far more extensive almond andwalnut orchards. California Farm Bureau officials say the labor force typicallypeaks at about 450,000 in September. Farm labor contractors saw warning signs as early as last year'sgrape harvest when a late season stretched the labor supply to thelimit, said Guadalupe Sandoval, managing director of theSacramento-based California Farm Labor Contractor Association.
"Things didn't ripen until late, so everybody needed workers at thesame time," Sandoval said. Reasons for the brake on immigrant labor are many. Prices asked by the "coyotes" who smuggle workers across the bordercontinue to rise — as high as $7,500, Sandoval is told. And,he said, "There's no guarantee of getting across. The coyotes maytake your money.
Maybe your life, as well." The narco-terrorism plaguing Mexico makes a treacherous journeynorth even more perilous. Fewer crossing the border Jeff Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center inWashington, D.C., said surveys tracking the labor force "show ahuge drop in the number of people setting out from Mexico. It's notsurprising that that's having an effect on agriculture." Mexico's demographics are changing, too, said Bryan Little,director of farm labor affairs at the California Farm BureauFederation. Families are getting smaller and the population isaging, shrinking the number of workers crossing the border, hesaid. Lawmakers have battled for years about various immigration reformstrategies, including the guest-worker programs favored by many inthe agricultural industry.
But Chuck Dudley, president of the Yolo County Farm Bureau, saidthe implications for American food consumers are severe ifshortages worsen. "If you don't get it planted, picked and packed, it won't get tothe table," he said. Bee staff writer John Holland contributed to this report. I am an expert from Scanners, usually analyzes all kind of industries situation, such as pioneer hts gs1 , hairstyles with tiaras.
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