Benefits Of H2A Program

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Dan Fazio, with the Washington Farm Labor Association is here today to talk about WFLA's annual report that was recently released, stressing that labor is one of the most crucial issues for farmers in the Pacific Northwest and one of the fastest growing programs to help farmers achieve a stable and affordable labor supply is the federal H2A Guest Worker Program.

FAZIO: We at the Washington Farm Labor Association were excited to publish a 2013 H2A Annual Report for Washington State. In 2013 there were more than 6000 workers in the state working under the H2A visas and that's about a 50% increase from 2012. And even more importantly, we also saw a 40% increase in the number of applications filed indicating that there's lots of innovative new growers that are using the program for the first time and you know one of our goals it to make the program affordable for small or medium sized growers was well.

Fazio talks about the benefits of the report and the program for growers.

FAZIO: This report highlights ways that farmers can make the program more affordable - like teaming up with another grower and that cuts the travel costs in half for the program. It's really good to see that growers in Washington are starting to rely on the program. You know the growers tell us that they get the same workers year in and year out and those workers are working only for them - only for the farmer that gets the visa for the worker, and the workers love the arrangement because it gives them a stable opportunity, good pay, free housing. They are very good, hard working workers.

Anyone wanting a copy of the report should either call the Washington Farm Labor Association office at 360-455-8064, or just go to their website at wafla.org and type in guest worker.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.