THE PACKERNovember 13, 2006
Florida growers face labor shortages
BY DOUG OHLEMEIER Eastern Editor
RUSKIN, Fla. – Labor remains the most critical issue facing most Florida grower-shippers.
Success of their big fall and spring deals hinges upon securing enough workers to pick the crops.
Shippers say they wish Congress had dealt with the issue before the growers’ season started. Now they have to wait for a national solution and hope government raids don’t remove needed workers from the state.
Growers won’t know what their labor force will be until they start harvesting, said Tony DiMare, vice president of DiMare Ruskin, Inc.
“It’s a concern with everyone,” he said. “You don’t know from day to day what you will have until you actually start harvesting. The labor supply is so thin anymore. You havea lot of overlaps in deals, which spread the labor supply thin.”
Later-running competing vegetable deals in northern production regions, DiMare said, also delay workers that normally travel to Florida’s fall deal.
“If the deals (up north) don’t have any early frost or adverse weather, and their season extends into October, when Florida normally starts, it can cut Florida’s labor supply down drastically,” DiMare said.
Other Florida industries, such as construction and hotel work, also are seeing fewer workers, he said.
The immigration issue and the potential for fewer workers may prompt a reconsideration of plantings, said Jim Monteith, sales manager for Immokalee-based Pacific Collier Fresh Co., a major bell pepper grower-shipper.
“It may force a lot of people to rethink what they put in the ground,” he said.
LOOSE CANNON
Wade Purvis, general manager of growing and packing, calls the issue a loose cannon.
“It’s what’s on everyone’s mind,” Purvis said.
To counteract possible labor shortages, Pacific Collier is working through an H2A program. The grower-shipper has also manipulated its planting schedule to avoid huge produce gluts that have often hit the market.
Bell pepper production typically bottles up around the Thanksgiving and New Yaer’s holidays, Purvis said. He said the company adjusted its September and October plantings to make for a more even flow of product.
Rick Sullivan, president of William Manis Co. Produce Marketing, Plant City, a growers’ marketing agency, said the watermelon growers Manis packs for experienced some labor shortages over the summer.
“A lot of the labor, especially the illegal labor, has left the area because the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) in this area has been very strong checking for green cards,” he said. “It’s an issue everyone will have to fight all year long.”
Larry Lipman, chief executive officer of Six L’s Packing Co. Unc., Immokalee, said labor wasn’t a serious problem until May. During the summer, he said the state’s agricultural sector has experienced shortages.
Six L’s houses 90% of its Florida farm workers and 100% of the crews picking its tomatoes in South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, Lipman said.
Labor issues present more challenges to growers this year, said Hurley Neer, vice president of sales for Rosemont Farms Corp., Boca Raton.
“The immigration laws are not helping the situation,” he said. “There’s a definite need for reform. It does, of course, remain a critical component to all farming operations today.”
Neer said Rosemont expects to have adequate labor this season. He said Rosemont is utilizing the H2A program as well as a guest worker program.
Gary Wishnatzki, president of Wishnatzki Farms, Plant City, said early indications show labor in central Florida should be OK.
However, with new immigrant-worker rules in place and the Department of Homeland Security’s crackdown on mismatched Social Security numbers, there could be some increased labor issues in the future, Wishnatzki said.
“At the moment labor seems to be adequate,” he said. “That situation, however, could change quickly.”
Oviedo-base Duda Farm Fresh Foods Inc. draws from a loyal and adequate labor force at its Belle Glade operation, said Michael Robinson, general manager of Duda’s Belle Glade facility.
“We’re always concerned, but I think we will have adequate labor, he said. “We have a lot of returnees.”
Robinson said Duda offers workers an attractive benefits package for its workers, many of whom live in mobile homes at the Belle Glade plant.
Duda replaced 70 of its 96 mobile homes that Hurricane Wilma destroyed when the hurricane chewed up south Florida in late October last year.
Brian Arrigo, president of Southern Corporate Packers Inc., Immokalee, said he hasn’t experienced any labor problems for harvests of Southern Corporate’s fall watermelon and vegetables.
“A lot of bigger companies are quite concerned,” he said. “We haven’t had any problems so far.”
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