05/27/08 Fruit Business

Fruit Business. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Checking into the fruit industry after a long, cool spring is showing a fairly significant decrease in the projected crop. Size should be pretty good but there will just be less of it and with the increase in energy costs, we may see in increase on the consumer side. One issue that has kept producers on their toes is the labor issue but according to BJ Thurlby, president of the Washington Fruit Commission, it should be okay this year. THURLBY: Well the labor side of the business right now is really about making sure we have enough product out there to attract a labor force out to our orchards and for now, if we have 10-million boxes that's significant volume still and that's a lot of work for someone to come up here and help up do. We have seen the politicians try and fail time and time again to get some sort of a labor deal done. We have managed up to this point to dodge the big one. THURLBY: It also looks to me like our bloom period was fairly spread out so our labor force should have the ability to start in the south and work up to the north. So from that perspective right now it looks okay. And I don't know if this labor thing will ever look better than okay. We're certainly hoping it will but from that perspective it looks like there's still going to be people coming up here and people interested in doing the work that we need to have done this summer. At a recent grower meeting Thurlby says there was some discussion on keeping energy costs in check. Tomorrow we talk about that. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.