August 2020 - 4

EDITOR'S LETTER
Fruit
Fast on their feet
The challenges faced by the specialty crops
agriculture industry were onerous enough prior
to the arrival of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Agriculture support companies and organizations
are doing everything they can to stay in touch
with the needs of their audiences.
An example recently shared with Fruit Growers
News was Belchim USA's conversation with Scott
Crawford, farm manager at Borton Fruit in
the Yakima Valley of Washington state, about
some of the challenges he has faced since the
beginning of COVID-19.
Colleen Tocci, communications and product
manager for Belchim USA, discussed with
Growers
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International Tree Fruit Association cancels
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Gary Pullano
Managing Editor
Crawford the record number for shipments his company experienced as
lockdowns began to take place and panic was setting in on the country,
but then just as quickly he saw that type of buying plummet, bringing
demand to a near standstill.
Borton Fruit grows cherries and apples on about 3,000 acres and employs
between 300-350 employees during the year.
" In mid-March when they shut the country down, people from
coast-to-coast went out and started buying a lot of produce and a number of
apple shippers recorded shipments that were higher in one week than ever
before in recorded history, " Crawford said. " That type of buying lasted about
two weeks, and then shipments plummeted and demand slowed. Around
that same time, we had some concerns about the supply chain for fertilizers
and chemicals that we would need during the growing season. One of our
suppliers advocated buying for the full season, but we hedged and bought
only what we needed for the next six weeks and didn't go beyond that. "
Crawford has been running a Borton Fruit farm for the past 23 years and
said that most years, he relies on H-2A temporary agricultural workers to
help harvest cherries and apples on the farm.
" My biggest concern about employees on our ranches and in other
farms throughout the state is that we are heavily reliant on an H-2A labor
workforce, " he said. " We were going to bring back the 150-plus workers who
worked on the farm last year. This year, we were told that we could bring back
any workers that worked on the farm last year. As the COVID-19 situation
evolves in the next couple months, I don't know if we will be able to hire more
workers like we had hoped to, which could make labor a little more difficult. "
In April, Washington state Departments of Health and Labor & Industries
released a draft rule-making for emergency COVID-19 temporary
agricultural worker housing. According to the Washington Policy Center,
" Under the proposed rules, the number of workers for cherry harvest would
essentially be cut in half because of the proposed changes to bunk bed use,
an untenable and, potentially, season-ending (situation) for many growers.'
" We house a lot of our workers in our newly-constructed labor housing
on the farm, " Crawford shared with Belchim. " It would definitely be a
concern if someone in one of those houses got sick. It could become an
issue and put us in a tricky spot. And in all of my years running this ranch,
I've had almost no one locally ask me for a job that wanted to do hand
labor. So, I have very little confidence that if our guest workers couldn't
work, we wouldn't see a major interruption to the fruit supply chain. "
Like many farms, Borton Fruit is implementing increased sanitary and
standard operation procedures to ensure that produce grown and shipped
from the farm is handled safely.
" When we first heard of the virus, we made a point of trying to
re-educate all of our employees about hand-washing and put hand
sanitizer pumps all around the farm. Then governmental regulatory
decrees were issued, and our sanitation procedures evolved even further.
We now ask all workers to wear face masks.
" We do not transport groups larger than six in farm busing, " Crawford
said. " We've stopped employees from eating lunch together and are trying
to spread people out during their workday. We sanitize all farm tools
(ladders, picking bags, buckets), worker housing and vehicles daily, and
anyone who reports feeling ill to any degree is immediately quarantined.
Sometimes it feels like we spend more time cleaning than we do farming. "
Tocci said Belchim USA is " deeply invested in our relationships with
distributors and growers and appreciate hearing their perspectives, as they
work tirelessly to continue to supply every one of us with fresh, healthy
fruits and vegetables. "
It's a refrain repeated many times over as the industry unites to address
challenges that are becoming all too familiar.
USDA appoints 24 members to Fruit and
Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee
The USDA has appointed 12 new members
to the Fruit and Vegetable Industry
Advisory Committee. They join 12 other
members who were re-appointed.
The International Fruit Tree Association has
canceled its Italy International Tour that was
scheduled for Nov. 13-22, 2020. It has been
rescheduled for November 2022.
Fourth-generation Illinois fruit grower
William 'Bill' Flamm dies
Bill Flamm, a member of the fourth generation
of the Flamm Orchards family, died at his
childhood home, in Cobden, Illinois, on July 6.
He was 83.
Rantizo receives swarm application
approval, first company to do so
Iowa City, Iowa-based Rantizo announced
that it is approved by the Federal Aviation
Administration for operation of multiple
drone swarms nationwide. This waiver allows
for the safe operation of three autonomous
drone sprayers by a single pilot and one
visual observer.
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August 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2020
