US Northwest pear growers are nervous about a labour shortage as another big crop — 19.3m cartons — is anticipated this season, reports The Packer.
“The one issue that we’re running into is will we have enough labour to pick it?” Dan Kelly, assistant manager with the Wenatchee-based Washington Growers Clearing House, which collects data for about 2,000 grower-members across the state, told The Packer.
Employing enough people to harvest the crop is the most daunting hurdle growers face each year, but labour pinch is especially harsh in big crop years, such as last year’s record 20.6m cartons in Washington, Kelly said.
Some of the concern has been blunted by a large cherry harvest during the summer, which often provides an indication of how many workers will be available to pick pears, Kelly said.
“I do have to say, though, that with the cherry deal, which looks like a record crop, labour hasn’t been a huge problem,” he said.
He added, though, that cherry harvests offer better pay than do those of other crops, including pears.
Settling the immigration issue in favour of a guest worker programme would ease some, if not most, of the growers’ worry, although that’s certain not to happen in a presidential election year, Kelly said.
“The labour issue is bigger and farmworker housing has been an issue the last few years,” he said.
Mike Gempler, executive director of the Yakima-based Washington Growers League, told The Packer there is likely to be ample labour this season.
“I think the big labour crunch will come around 1 October, when apples are peaking, so my hope and guess at this time is that we’ll have sufficient labour for the pear harvest,” Gempler said.
He estimates Washington will have a field-labour pool of 5,000 to 6,000, which would be in the typical range.
Kelly said a long-term goal of the industry is a move toward mechanical harvesting of apples, cherries and pears.
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