Looking At Labor For Cherries

Looking At Labor For Cherries. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.

In another month we should start seeing some cherries being harvested around the northwest. One question always pops up and that is will there be enough labor to deal with the crop. NW Cherries' BJ Thurlby says that is always an issue.

THURLBY: You know labor is always a challenge and certainly the lack of labor needed in California could be an issue. So we're just all kind of crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. Certainly we're going to have an asparagus harvest up here has been great. We don't have a drought going on. Our watersheds are in pretty darn good shape so overall we think that the labor is going to be here but with this cherry thing every year it's a hold your breath deal and you hope that you can find the labor to get your fruit off when you need it.

He says growers struggle with this on an annual basis.

THURLBY: They're trying to figure out ways to get the right amount of people into these orchards so when it comes to labor, seriously it's a situation where it's a major issue and we're knocking on wood and we're hoping that works out, just like everything else on the cherry orchard. There's a long way to go and if you remember last year we had this gorgeous first two weeks of May, it was pushing into the 90's and then the weather went from 85 degrees down to 55 degrees for the last two weeks of May and then the rain started.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.