Fewer Fruit Pickers Hurt Tree Sales | The Olive Oil Source
 

Fewer Fruit Pickers Hurt Tree Sales

Source: Food and Farm News
December 29, 2007

Lingering concerns about the availability of harvest workers has affected demand for certain types of young trees. Nursery operators say farmers have been reluctant to buy citrus and stone-fruit trees for new orchards. They say farmers aren’t investing in those trees because they’re not sure they’ll be able to hire enough help to pick the fruit. Farmers have had chronic problems filling their harvest crews in recent years, and citrus and stone-fruit crops must be harvested by hand.