ATHENS, Georgia. — Georgia farms were short more than 11,000 workers during the early summer 2011 harvest, according to a survey conducted by the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association and analyzed by the University of Georgia's Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development.
The analysis does not speculate on the reasons for the labor shortage, but farmers have complained that the state's new, strict immigration law, House Bill 87, has caused many Latino migrant workers to move elsewhere.
In Georgia, unemployment is currently above 10 percent, but farmers say they still have a hard time finding, hiring and retaining enough U.S. citizens to help with the harvest.
Earlier this month, Connie Horner, an organic blueberry farmer from Homerville, Georgia, explained the problem in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security, explaining that “in addition to the seven H2A [agricultural visa] “For the workers we brought from Mexico in 2010, we had to send 58 hiring letters to locals. We received no response from 25 (43%). Eighteen (31%) were hired but never showed up, and of the 13 (22%) who were hired and showed up to work, six worked three days or less, one stayed longer than two weeks, and none finished the season.”
Using historical production and cost data from survey respondents, the UGA analysis estimates that Georgia's blueberry industry suffered nearly $30 million in losses this spring due to reported labor shortages.
Total crop losses for blueberries, blackberries, watermelons, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins and onions amounted to nearly $75 million this spring.
“If the survey results were representative of all [Georgia’s agricultural] The total annual impact would be approximately $391 million,” the report said.
More than 53 percent of vegetable growers and more than 20 percent of berry growers said they plan to cut back on production in 2012, suggesting they expect a continued labor shortage. As the report notes, plantings of annual crops such as vegetables are easier to change than perennial, perennial crops on berry bushes.
“Georgia is a prime example of what can happen when a mandatory E-Verify and enforcement law is passed without an adequate guest worker program in place,” said Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, in a press release about the report.
Farmers report similar problems in neighboring Alabama, which also recently passed strict laws to combat illegal immigration.
