A Snapshot of the Fruit Harvest

A Snapshot of the Fruit Harvest. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Harvest is wrapping up across the northwest and Jim McFerson with the WA Tree Fruit Research Commission takes a look at the recap of the fall tree fruit harvest. MCFERSON: Harvest is winding up finally in apple and we've had a good year in production. It looks like a very favorable year in grower returns. So that's a big help to the cherry industry which got whacked last year and apples and pears are kind of on a roll so I think there's good news. He says even with the depressed economy the tree fruit industry seems to be thriving. MCFERSON: I'd say overall the attitude is good and that means we're seeing optimism for the future, we're seeing reinvestment, we continue to put in new orchards. We continue to recapitalize our packing operations and really exciting new operations facilities are online and coming online so we're upgrading overall from the orchard right to the handling system through to the consumer. What will the New Year bring? MCFERSON: Labor continues to crunch. Even in a down economy where we're seeing competition from the hospitality industry, the construction industry, a few years back was luring a lot of folks that might have been working in the orchards to working in Seattle, Tacoma or Belleview. But we're awful tight. The labor supply quality and quantity diminishes every year. So next year, 2011 I think we're going to see the same issues. I don't think waiting for a political resolution is a good idea, I don't think we'll have one. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.