Is H-2A Working?

There have been a few issues with labor this year but for the most part harvest has gone fail smoothly. One reason may be the H-2A program. Dan Fazio with Washington Farm Labor Association has a look.

FAZIO: Apple harvest is winding down, the weather is picture perfect and it is a huge crop and it looks like people have enough labor to get it in, thanks to the forward thinking growers in our state who have embraced the legal worker program.  We just got the statistics back from the state of Washington, and there were just over 9,000 foreign workers helping to bring in the crop.  That is a 45 percent increase from 2013.  If you go back to 2007, you have an average 20 percent increase every year, from fewer than 2,000 to greater than 9,000. People said that the H-2A program could not be done, but Washington growers showed that it could.  We are getting cooperation from the state on the program, and now if we can get a little more cooperation from the feds on this program it will really be hitting on all six, as they say.  Early indications are another big year for this legal worker program.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.