Cherry Harvest Short of Pickers

I'm Susan Allen with the Fruit Grower Report. With this burst of hot weather, cherry harvest is already begun in the Royal Slope, Mattawa and some parts of Wenatchee and growers with light crops are struggling to find H-2A Visa pickers and domestic workers. Dan Fazio CEO of The Washington Farm Labor Program known as WAFLA is frustrated that the process is slow and difficult and there's the fact that Farmers who don't receive H-2A workers on their date of need are required to payng their domestic workers higher H-2A minimum wages per hour according to that original date.

FAZIO: The cherries were early again this year by about a week it looks like depending on the variety and where you are. Which is kind of crazy because it was the earliest it has ever been last year.

Where does that leave our growers regarding labor?

FAZiA: I know that there's a massive labor shortage and we are using the legal worker program to get people up here, and we've been pretty successful in getting people up here on time even though there're been lots of delays in the process with the states and the Feds have had some issues this year with approving the application. Our biggest issue now is to make sure everyone gets their workers from Mexico through the legal worker program H-2A on time and on time and on the date they need them. That's been our biggest challenge.

WAFLA provided 67 percent of the 12,000 H-2A workers in Washington last year and anticipates that they will have over 10,000 in the state by July 1.