04/16/08 Getting to the Fruit

Getting to the Fruit. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The weather is a hot topic in the tree fruit industry at this time but there are other issues on the table including the recent "No-Match" letter fiasco. Dave Carlson, President of the Washington Apple Commission says it will be a big issue this year. CARLSON: Absolutely a big issue. It definitely affects us and it's of great concern. Senator Diane Feinstein from California has been working on a proposal for an interim fix to this agricultural worker problem. The Senator has proposed the issuance of a 5-year work visa that would not offer any path to U.S. citizenship. CARLSON: They estimate that there is about a 1, 350,000 agricultural workers in the country at the present time that are not documented properly. If that happened they would not be subject to the no-match situation. Carlson said that a number of other ag producers are opting out of various commodities and as a result may be causing demand shortages or increased costs. CARLSON: The largest tomato producer in Pennsylvania a week ago announced that he was not going to plant tomatoes this year. He was moving into corn or something that was more mechanized. Sole reason was, not that he couldn't sell them, not that he wasn't making money but he did not think that he would be able to have enough agricultural labor to harvest. More tomorrow. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.