No discussion of the produce industry could be complete without mentioning labor. For Canadians, however, there seems to be good news.
Joe Lavorato, president of Fruits et Legumes Gaetan Bono Inc. of Montreal, said production is up and “big farms bring in 300 to 400 workers. You go into the lettuce growing areas and growers aren’t complaining about labor anymore.”
He believes the government’s program of issuing six-month visas is working well. Growers, he said, are then responsible for paying minimum wage and providing workers with living arrangements. “It works—we now have so much product.”
Another hiccup involved the U.S.’s implementation of electronic logging devices (ELDs) in trucks. Initially, there were many challenges, but much of the fervor has died down.
Jeff Steinberg, a buyer for Top Katz NY, based in New York City, works extensively with companies in Quebec. “Business is good,” but he cautions that ELDs have certainly caused problems with hours of service and break times. Drivers aren’t happy about mandated run times and breaks, as the policy often prevents timely deliveries.
Sometimes drivers run out of time and are forced to stop “an hour short of their destination and wait,” Steinberg said.
“It isn’t common sense,” he said, and believes the government should let the transportation companies set their own rules.
Drivers, he explains, “aren’t writing these laws. The people who wrote them did it to cut down on accidents.”
In his opinion, forcing drivers to run for 10 straight hours could cause more accidents, not less.
Lastly, when it comes to contentious trade and possible tariffs, there wasn’t much discourse but a wait-and-see attitude.
Lavorato put it succinctly: “I normally don’t worry over things I can’t control.”
This is an excerpt from the most recent Produce Blueprints quarterly journal. Click here to read the full article.
