03/08/07 2007 Tree Fruit Industry

2007 Tree Fruit Industry. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Gip Redman is a field man for Holtzinger's and talks to a lot of other producers in the tree fruit industry and one of the main topics continues to be the labor issue. REDMAN: Everybody I'm talking to is at least giving lip service to the fact that "oh, yea I'm concerned about labor." I have a sense that it's fairly urgent but I also have a sense that some growers haven't really grasped what the possibilities might be if we have a large crop and the season is shortened by some means; for some reason. I think that there's going to be some orchards that aren't picked. Since the 2006 crop had some major issues and 2007 doesn't really look any better Redman thinks that some people are dragging their feet on change. He says some producers are getting prepared. REDMAN: Then others are continuing to stick their heads in the sand and I mean that by  not meanly, it's just what I see. More people are getting involved in the H2A program. It really needs to change and there's a lot of people dragging their feet because it's so cumbersome. Those rules really need to be revamped. Redman says the AgsJobs legislation might help but he says: REDMAN: Any type of ag legislation back in DC really needs to be tied to some sort of help for the labor issue with growers. We're really caught as you know in a rock and hard spot situation. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.