RIVERSIDE (California) PRESS-ENTERPRISE

September 18, 2006

Finding Harvesters

Facing tight labor market, immigration policies, worried Coachella Valley growers watch crops ripen

By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
The Press-Enterprise

Farmers often face uncontrollable events, from weather to market demand. But Coachella Valley farmers hope they can control at least one unknown: where they'll find workers if immigration policies remain the same.

This summer's heat wave partially solved the problem. The heat scorched much of the grape crop and made it unnecessary to hire as many workers as usual.

"Were it not for the (weak) crop this year, we would have had a lot of reports of problems," Jack King, national affairs director of the California Farm Bureau, said of the supply of workers.

This is not to say farms haven't felt the brunt of a labor shortage because of stricter border controls. Coachella Valley farmers said they had just as many workers as they needed. But fall harvests could be decidedly tighter, farmers said.

The California Farm Bureau has been informally polling farmers for anecdotal stories about labor shortages.

"We've gotten more from San Diego, not from Coachella," King said. He said the biggest issue for Southern California farmers is the lengthy wait at the border required for day laborers with visas. That costs growers, who have tight picking schedules. Losing a labor force for even a few hours can be expensive.

Other long-term workers have followed the harvest north, creating a gap for Southern California farms preparing winter crops.

King spent last week in Washington, D.C., pushing legislators to support the immigration reform bill passed by the Senate this year, which includes a guest-worker provision.

"There was enough labor, but there were times when it seemed a little tight to find people," said Joe Perez, ranch manager with grape and watermelon grower Belk Farms in Coachella, Thermal and Mecca. At the harvest's peak in spring, the farm employs 600 workers, who pick more than 1,000 acres of grapes.

Perez said he's losing an already-diminishing supply of labor to other industries, namely construction and hospitality. Riverside County has lost about 60,000 acres of agricultural land in the past five years, according to the county's agriculture commissioner's office. Much of that land became desert housing tracts.

"They can have better hours, they can have better working conditions ... a little better pay," Perez said. "There're so many country clubs ... it's pulling people away from here."

Mark Nickerson, managing partner with Coachella Valley bell pepper grower Prime Time International, expects his fall harvesting crew to be stretched thin when it arrives in six weeks.

"There's been a labor shortage since our spring season ... we're expecting it to be tight," he said. "During the fall, it's difficult because Ventura County, the coastal areas are in their strawberry season."

Agriculture organizations have dispatched their lobbyists in Washington, D.C., to sway votes in their favor, hoping for immigration reform that includes a guest-worker program.

Tim Chelling, vice president of communications for the Western Growers group, acknowledged multiple reasons for a smaller farm labor pool, including an aging work force.

"Farmworkers don't raise their kids to be farmworkers," he said. Chelling said an Imperial Valley farm had informally polled its workers and reported their average age is 48, which he said is considered old. Of the reasons for labor shortages, "the most readily solvable and fixable is immigration policy," he said.