Cherry Automation Part 2
Cherry Automation Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.
Tim Sambado with Prima Frutta our of Linden, CA recently spoke on whether automated cherry lines were the future for the industry and he talked a bit about differences and similarities of the industries between California and the northwest.
SAMBADO: The supply and the cost of labor getting much more challenging, our increased cherry acreage and the new varieties that we are all trying to manage. A limited number of workers. Our minimum wage in California has increased by 25%. New state law just recently passed. Our worker compensation insurance has been increasing annually the last few of years and of course the Affordable Healthcare Act which I don't know if any of us really know what that's going to mean to us.
He says by the year 2016 there won't be that many differences.
SAMBADO: But we're going to be $10 plus per hour for our labor. You add the healthcare costs, the worker compensation costs and others, we may be looking at our labor cost between now and 2016 - our all-in costs maybe double is a possibility with the healthcare act.
Sambado says that with current and future acreage they could be look at marketing a combined 35 to 40-million boxes of cherries.
SAMBADO: In order to be successful or mildly successful with that we need to have a higher quality pack to expand out markets and this technology may give us that opportunity.
We'll find out more about what that technology is on Monday.
That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
