Shortage of migrants puts farmers in crunch

The apple harvest is here, but help was slow in coming. Are tighter immigration rules to blame or a tighter job market? Either way, Michigan's growers are hard-pressed for help.

By John Carpenter
Special to the Tribune

OLD MISSION, Mich. -- Leo Ocanas has an aching back and about a million apples to pick. And he finds himself oddly thankful that a spring frost cut this year's crop in half.

It seems migrant workers have been hard to come by this year, which has meant weeks of 20-hour days for Ocanas and farmers like him.

"I finally have enough guys now, but it was beginning to get to me," the 61-year-old Ocanas said. "It's been a hard year."

Ocanas is not alone. Michigan is the third-largest producer of apples in the U.S. behind New York and Washington. And farmers here have for generations relied on migrants at picking time. This year the help was slow in coming. And though many farmers wonder whether the controversy over immigration laws and increased border security are to blame, officials say there is no deliberate slowdown involved.

"I can tell you that we have seen a very large increase in demand" for the special work visas migrants use, said Janelle Hironimus, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department.

Beyond the visa issue, a number of migrants who have in the past worked on U.S. farms without obtaining work permits have taken full-time jobs in other capacities. The shortage of migrant labor has made it impossible for farmers to harvest their acres of crops--leaving some of them to rot.

Close call

In Michigan, an official with an industry-funded advocacy group said most farmers now have the workers they need, though only a few weeks remain of the harvest. Earlier this year, many farmers feared they would lose their crop for lack of pickers.

"It is the most worried they [the farmers] have been about the future of their business," said Denise Yockey, executive director of the Michigan Apple Committee.

Michigan harvests about 1 billion apples each year, she said, explaining that apple picking is considered skilled labor, unlike many other kinds of simple farm work. And unlike cherries, another major Michigan crop, apples must be picked by hand, Yockey said.

"Once an apple hits the ground it is considered unsalable," she said. "If you pick up a bruised apple in the grocery store, you put it back. You don't buy it. It's as simple as that."

Yockey also said that if an apple is picked improperly, damaging the branch it is hanging from, the future yield from that tree can be reduced.

Picking is hard work. Clint Warren helps run the Peninsula Fruit Exchange, a processing plant and supply store about 10 miles north of Traverse City. He grew up on an apple farm.

"Local kids anymore, they don't want to work on the farms," Warren, 35, said. "It could be pretty good money if they were willing to work for it. What I've seen, though, is a decline in work ethic."

Help wanted

Ocanas said he and other farmers are required by law to pay migrants $9.43 per hour. When several members of his regular crew were delayed this year waiting for their visas, Ocanas said he put a help-wanted ad in the local paper.

"I got three calls. But when they found out it was picking, they didn't want anything to do with it," he said.

No one needs to tell Ocanas how hard the work is. A native of Monterrey, Mexico, he was a migrant farmworker from age 4. He, his mother and his sister picked everything from cotton to strawberries to cherries to potatoes to apples in six states.

"It was a hard life. But you know what? I'm proud of that," Ocanas said.

He started saving at an early age. By 1978, when he became a U.S. citizen, Ocanas could afford a 22-acre farm here. The Old Mission Peninsula is a finger of land stretching north from Traverse City. It bisects the lower half of Grand Traverse Bay, which opens up onto northern Lake Michigan. The hilly terrain and sandy soil make it an ideal place for growing fruit trees.

"I always liked coming back here," Ocanas said.

Now he either owns or farms more than 200 acres, and he's more used to the headaches of a business owner than the backaches of a fieldworker.

Ocanas said five of the seasonal workers he employs require special work visas. This year, he said, it took longer to complete the paperwork. And once the work was done, it took longer for the visas to arrive.

"They would drag their feet," he said of immigration agency officials. "I would think I had everything filled out, then they would tell me I needed more. My guys were sitting in Monterrey, waiting to come up."

Paperwork problems?

Mary Lou Cabrera, spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Homeland Security Department, said there has been no change in procedures this year and that she was not aware of any delays. Problems with paperwork, she said, would slow down the process.

But Yockey said workers not getting to the farms in time was "the biggest problem" for apple farmers this year.

One thing that may have saved Ocanas and other farmers, ironically, was a spring frost. It damaged the apple crop, reducing this fall's yield by about half.

Ocanas said he would normally harvest 2 million to 3 million pounds of apples. This year it will probably be about 1 million pounds.

"I don't know what I would have done if it was a full crop," he said.