New York’s apple crop is just hanging around, due to slim pickers. It seems that the folks that pick this crop aren’t showing up. At the core of the problem is illegal immigration.
Ideal growing conditions during spring and summer have produced one of the largest apple crops on record, but immigration raids are severely affecting apple farmers’ abilities to harvest the large crop.
“This is a crisis situation in the orchards right now,” said Jim Allen, president of New York Apple Association. “We’re very concerned about the apple harvest. Labor has become very tight.”
Growers in the western New York area are seeing as much as a 30 percent decline in the seasonal labor force, Allen said, adding that the apple-picking jobs could pay $12 to $13 an hour.
Because of the crackdown on the farming industry by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, many migrant workers have been reluctant to come to upstate New York for jobs, Allen said.
1 response so far ↓
1 John J. Simmins // Sep 21, 2006 at
That’s $25,000/year! The median income for Rochester is only $29K (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bpretire/2006/snapshots/PL3663000.html) I would think all those unemployed people would be lining up……oh wait…..I forgot………