The California Fresh Fruit Association has prioritized issues for 2019, with federal immigration policies and their effects on the labor force as the leading issue.
Members of the Fresno-based association were polled in December, according to a news release.
“As in years past, our membership has given us strong direction in identifying their top priorities for 2019,” George Radinovich, president of the California Fresh Fruit Association. “The issues of labor, water, and food safety, will lead our list of issues.”
The CFFA serves as a liaison between regulatory and legislative authorities on the members’ issues of concerns, giving them a unified voice on those and other issues, he said in the release.
The rest of the group’s top-10 issues are:
- Increasing wage costs, including base pay/overtime;
- Water availability;
- Immigration enforcement;
- Groundwater management requirements;
- Labor regulatory compliance;
- Water quality requirements/clean drinking water liability;
- Federal/state food safety compliance requirements;
- Health care costs; and
- Plant health materials (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides)
