News

Labor needs met for blueberry harvest

A Michigan blueberry grower says a spring freeze in the south has provided an adequate amount of migrant workers to harvest this year’s crop for the first time in recent years.

Shelly Hartmann with True Blue Farms in Southwest Michigan tells Brownfield migrant workers in the first few weeks of harvest were delayed coming to the state as New Jersey’s season ran a little long, but with a large crop expected in the Great Lakes, workers have arrived.  “Because they had some weather disasters in some of the southern states, I think that they’re really excited to get here and so they can catch up to where their earnings were.”

Hartmann says devastating frosts in Georgia and North Carolina have also boosted prices for fresh market blueberries this season.

Michigan leads the U.S. in the number of cultivated blueberry acres, producing about 20 percent of the nations’ supply last year.

AUDIO: Interview with Shelly Hartmann