Technology In South America Part 2

Technology In South America Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Ray Schmitten with McDougall & Sons has spent some time down in South America learning about their fruit industry and one of their major issues, like here in the states, is labor.

SCHMITTEN: Let’s talk about labor costs in Argentina, up 139% over the last 4 years. It’s a different deal. There’s lots of labor issues. There’s been strikes. It’s not going to go away. The cost of labor in Chile is less. The political situation down there gives a little more strength to private industry, a little less problem with strikes and labor issues but that has changed as well.

He says competition is a big issue.

SCHMITTEN: Consumers internationally are demanding quality, safe food. We are going to have to be able to track this product. We do it here in the United States, they’re doing it there. They’re exporting it to the same place we are and selling to the same people. And then competition in the same marketplace - that’s in a lot of cases us, U.S.

Schmitten talks about chemical technologies in South America.

SCHMITTEN: In 2007 they had been using a little Maxcel for chemical thinning of Bartlett pears. Typically a Bartlett pear out of Argentina was a little smaller than you saw out of the Pacific Northwest, we are pretty proud of that. When I went down last year after the third year of them using Maxcel. this would be comparable to our June timing about the time we’d be hand thinning, they weren’t needing to hand thin.

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