Editor’s note: This is the first in a series exploring the current state of labor in the fresh produce industry.
Labor has been a critical issue for agriculture for decades, and it’s reaching an inflection point, according to some in the fresh produce business.
Industry groups have pushed for immigration reform and changes to the H-2A temporary agricultural employment program, but nothing has come to fruition. Meanwhile, the U.S. domestic workforce is aging out as fewer citizens show interest for working in agriculture.
“As the years have ticked by, and as Congress has been unable to craft the solution, the situation has gotten worse,” said Mark Powers, president of the Northwest Horticultural Council, a trade organization that represents growers, packers and shippers of apples, pears and sweet cherries in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. “Especially over the past couple of years, our growers have been increasingly struggling and, frankly, going out of business.”
Caleb Herrygers, a fourth-generation farmer growing tart cherries, apples and asparagus at Herrygers Farms in Oceana County, Mich., said he’s frustrated with the lack of change to the ag labor situation.
“It feels like we’ve been having the same conversation for five [or] 10 years now, and we haven’t seen a lot of solutions,” he said. “I think at first, farmers were like, ‘We can tighten up the belt and get a little more efficient here and there and make it work.’
“But then every year you get punched just a little bit harder and a little bit harder,” he continued. “And it’s snowballed to a point now where, when we see it in this area, there’s farms that are getting out of the specialty crops just to avoid the labor bill.”
However, labor plays a critical role for growers who say their family farms compete with construction companies and landscaping to recruit domestic workers.
The American Business Immigration Coalition recently launched a campaign called “Secure Our Borders and Secure Our Workforce” on the heels of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent roundups. On a call introducing the campaign, coalition CEO Rebecca Shi spoke of the critical role that immigrant workers have on the U.S. economy and the impact of losing those workers.
“With 1.7 million open jobs, removing immigrant essential workers will worsen the labor shortages, slash the U.S. GDP by 4.2% and surge inflation for everyday Americans,” she said.
Narrow path ahead
Tony DiMare, president of DiMare Fresh, a vertically integrated grower and shipper of citrus and tomatoes and a distributor of fruit and vegetables in Homestead, Fla., represented the fresh produce industry on the American Business Immigration Coalition call. He said DiMare Fresh employs some documented domestic workers, but as those workers age out of agriculture, he has to turn to the H-2A program, which allows ag employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring non-immigrant foreign workers to the U.S. to perform seasonal ag labor.
“We don’t get a lot of interest from American citizens to harvest our crops, whether it’s tomatoes, citrus, bell peppers — you name the commodity of fruit and vegetables,” DiMare said. “American citizens just won’t do this type of labor, and so we have no other alternative but to bring in workers.”
“Our farm wouldn’t operate without these workers,” Owyhee Produce CEO Shay Myers told The Packer. The Parma, Idaho-based company, which grows asparagus, onions, watermelon and more, employs 90 H-2A workers. “We wouldn’t grow the food we grow without these workers; they are absolutely mandatory and essential to our operation.”
Myers said the adverse effect wage rate offered to workers costs his business more to participate in the H-2A program, but he also has been unsuccessful in sourcing domestic workers. AEWR is the average gross hourly earnings that serves as the minimum wage for H-2A employees and U.S.-based workers in similar jobs employed by agriculture businesses using the program.
A Michigan State University Extension news report published in March 2024 estimated AEWRs ranged from $14.53 in the Southeast to $19.75 in California. Michigan’s AEWR, now at $18.50, increased by $1.16 from 2023 to 2024, according to the report.
Ag labor is an all-encompassing term for a lot of tasks, says Jon DeVaney, the president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association. While harvest is a major part of growers’ labor needs, there’s irrigation, crop protection, thinning and more.
DeVaney said Washington’s AEWR will increase another 3% for this upcoming growing season.
“We’ll often hear critiques from the worker advocate communities, ‘Why are you only focused on reducing labor costs? You know there are other things you can do to ensure the profitability of producers?’” he said. “Well, this is the big-ticket item in production, and when it’s rising far faster than the overall rate of inflation in the economy — as ag labor costs have — it creates a lot of anxiety. You’re seeing your biggest line item in your budget going up really rapidly, and that is a big concern.”
Powers, the Northwest Horticultural Council president, said his organization started tracking data on labor’s impact to help legislators understand how unsustainable the current agricultural labor system is for growers.
The Northwest Horticultural Council has been cataloging growers’ gross return, which is the take-home pay per bin after packing charges, since 2013 — it shows a startling change in that 10 years, Powers said.
In 2013, 37% of growers’ net return went to costs associated with labor, according to the council. That figure jumped to 70% in 2022, and in 2023 that figure jumped to 99%. Then there’s other costs associated with growing tree fruit, such as inputs, fees for growing proprietary varieties and more.
“We knew it was bad,” he said. “I’m not sure we knew it was this bad. Everybody has been worried; even the 2022 crop was at 70% [of growers’ gross returns went to labor]. It’s still questionable how many of them actually had money to pay off all of their costs associated with production. In 2023, it is clear — people didn’t.”
How this happened
Powers said while there are domestic workers still in central Washington that tree fruit growers employ, they’re aging out and there are increasingly fewer domestic workers to take their places.
There’s also been a shift in Mexico, said David Magaña, senior analyst for the U.S. and North American fresh fruit and vegetable industries for Rabobank. Fewer workers come to the U.S. from Mexico to work in agriculture due to several factors, such the improving economic situation in Mexico, he said.
Magaña employment the agricultural sector accounted for about 25% of total employment in Mexico 30 years ago, but that figure has dropped to about 12% in recent years. He said a 2018 USDA report that tracks the probability of working in agriculture in rural areas shows another staggering shift.
“In 1980, so 45 years ago, it was about 50% in some rural areas,” he said. “That has declined to about 20% in recent years, so even in rural Mexico there are other types of work and other activities. Now [with] newer generations, [fewer] people live in rural areas, and even people that live in rural areas don’t have experience working in ag.”
Magaña said the average family size in Mexican has decreased. A typical Mexican family in the 1960s or 1970s would have seven to eight children, compared to around two to three children now, significantly reducing current and future labor pool, he said.
“Also from the labor demand side, you have more farm activities happening now in central Mexico,” Magaña said. “Compared to 40 years ago, they didn’t have all the berry operations like now. You can make good money harvesting raspberries, blackberries, blueberries or avocados, and you don’t have to migrate to the U.S. and make a decent living.”
Another aspect to consider in terms of demand for labor in Mexico is the nearshoring trend. With manufacturing companies relocating to Mexico from Asia or other places, the competition for labor has increased.
What this means
DeVaney, the Washington State Tree Fruit Association president, said these increased costs tree fruit growers face have a greater impact as growers and retailers face a difficult challenge. It’s not as easy as raising prices, as increased cost of domestic fruit might cause a shift to imported fruits and vegetables.
“You’re not just competing against other apple growers and other pear growers; you’re competing against growers of grapes, oranges, tropical fruits and berries,” he said. “You’ve got all the substitutable products from foreign countries coming into the market that you’re competing against directly here and in foreign export markets that prevent you from passing on those mandated cost increases.”
Herrygers, of Herrygers Farms, said something has to give eventually.
“People want cheap food, high wages and family farms — and you can’t have all three,” he said.
DeVaney said the unfortunate part of the current state of ag labor is there are no easy answers.
“There are solutions, but they have a cost too,” he said. “So it’s pick what you’re going to spend your money on or borrow money. If you don’t have the money at all — especially in a tight and down year — can you do anything? You just may have to throw up your hands and say, ‘I can’t do this.’ That’s what’s happening to a lot of growers right now.”
Your next read in this series:
- What Does the Future Hold for Labor in an Ag Tech World?
- Will Autonomous Harvest Reach the Goal Line?
- What You Need to Know About the DOL’s New H-2A Updates
- What Workers Think of the Dignity Act
- Farmworkers Say Their Role Is Essential ‘All the Time’
- ‘Crisis’ Point: Urgency Builds for Immigration Reform in Agriculture
- Overtime laws make it almost impossible to farm, growers say
- Growers say the current state of H-2A is untenable
- Much work remains to solve ag labor issues
