Labor Shortage Hurts Apple Growers
Growers in Okanagan County this season had plenty of fruit, but no one to pick it.
Orchardist Rocky DeVon needed 50 people to help him harvest his Red and Golden Delicious apples. Instead, he had to make do with 19.
“There was a tremendous shortage of labor up here,” he said. “And across the board, it seemed to be hurting everybody.”
Farmers partly blame the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which stepped up arrests in Eastern Washington this year.
He and the other orchardists depend on the migrant workers to harvest their crop. “If they don’t work in the agriculture industry, nobody does anymore.”
DeVon said he pays beginning workers about $65 a day and experienced pickers earn up to $100. He also supplies housing and utilities.
Employers are required to check workers’ documents to ensure they’re eligible to work in the United States, according to the INS. Undocumented workers sometimes get around this by borrowing Social Security numbers, identification and green cards from other workers.
Though labor was tight in other apple-growing areas, such as Wenatchee and Yakima, the hardest hit was Okanagan County, said Dean Tupper, spokesman for the Washington Farm Bureau.
The INS hadn’t noticed a labor shortage, said Loretta Lopez-Mossman, deputy chief patrol agent for the agency. But INS arrests are up from last year, she said. “We are showing our highest apprehensions for the last six years.”
This year, the INS picked up 2,331 undocumented immigrants in Eastern Washington, a jump from 1,352 last year. That was due to an increase in INS officers in the state.
“This year we had most of our agents in the sector (Eastern Washington) for the whole year,” said Lopez-Mossman. “Last year most people were down at the (U.S.-Mexico) border for Operation Gatekeeper.”
Okanagan County seemed to have its own such operation. According to DeVon, the agents heavily patrolled Highway 97, the main road into the county. “I don’t know if we were so much singled out as we were an easier target because we only have one road,” he said. “The Hispanics were afraid to come here.”
While DeVon was able to harvest his crop in a timely manner, some of his fellow growers had to leave their apples too long on the trees while they waited for workers to finish in other orchards.
DeVon said he tried to find other workers. He even placed an order for 40 workers with the Department of Employment Security in June. “They finally got me two people the last few days of picking,” he said.
DeVon said he’s lucky that his harvest was smaller than usual this year and he was not too hurt by the low number of available workers.
But next summer, he’s expecting more fruit and will need more help. “If I have the same number of workers and a normal harvest, I expect half my crop to rot on the trees,” he said.”I’m extremely worried about next year.” , DataTimes