Oregon Grower Concerned About Available Labor This Season

“We can’t run a farm without people.” That quote from Oregon grower Doug Krahmer sums up what many producers across the PNW are feeling as the 2024 season ramps up—growing concern over labor availability and rising H-2A program costs.

By Heather Roberts, PNW Ag Network

Oregon berry farmers will start hiring for summer in just a few months, but some worry new federal immigration policies will lead to a labor shortage.  Narendra Varma grows a variety of vegetables and berries at his Sherwood farm and said it’s always a challenge to ramp up hiring ahead of summer.  But this season concerns him more than seasons past.

“This year, I think there’s a lot of uncertainty and fear in Hispanic communities, which is what most farm workers tend to be in this country, for better or for worse.”

Varma said his workers are in the country legally.  Critics will tell him he should only hire Americans, but he said it’s not that simple.

The fact is that other than Hispanic farm workers, who have experience – which I think a lot of people forget about, a lot of these people have a lot of experience – I find that there’s just not a lot of people- When people say ‘Americans to hire for these jobs,” they really mean White Americans. They don’t want these jobs.”

Varma said it’s not about the pay; noting, the wage doesn’t matter if there’s nobody available to take the job.

Read the article here.