30 days before the start of the cherry harvest season, production looks promising.
According to producers, the two oases where the cherry is produced, both in the Uco Valley, at Tupungato, Tunuyan, and San Carlos, as well as in the North, at Las Heras, Lujan, and Maipu, will have generous yields and good qualities that allow them to start planning exports.
The big question, however, is if the sector will have enough manpower to conduct the harvest and packing tasks.
The fruit must be harvested manually as it would suffer too much damage if it were harvested mechanically, which would render it useless for marketing.
Cherry producers said they trusted they would have enough manpower to conduct the harvest, which will begin at the end of October.
"The peak period, that is the time when we need more personnel, will take place in December in the Uco Valley and we have to find as many workers as possible for that moment," said Alberto Carleti, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Tunuyan. Unlike other fruits that come from other provinces, the cherry is harvested with local labor because it requires experience and delicacy.
"We must take care of the fruit and the tree because we have to protect the plant so as not to affect its productivity. The workers must also be careful and harvest it with its stem. It's a very specialized job so we need people from the area that are used to taking all the care needed," said Carleti.
The southern agricultural leader said that it is still difficult to predict whether or not there will be a shortage of workers.
"Last year we had no labor shortage. This season will depend on what happens with the other crops. In our case, the cherry harvest coincides with the harvest of the garlic so there can be a shortage of labor," said Carleti.
The president of the Cherry Chamber, Diego Aguilar, who is part of the Rio Alara SA company, which produces cherries in Alto Agrelo and Carrodilla and in Los Antiguos, in Santa Cruz, stated that the number of workers available for the cherry harvest may decrease due to the garlic harvest and the construction sector, which also has openings for the workers.
Aguilar recognized that the lack of personnel was a problem that they had to deal with and that it was something that could affect them every season. "The construction sector affects the agricultural sector: we lose many workers to it, especially in the second half of the year. It's never been easy. We will see what circumstances arise. The agricultural work is more specialized so there's a smaller group of workers," said Aguilar.
"It is a sensitive issue. 60% of the value of a box is labor. The harvest is paid per volume. Workers start the harvest very early and it is an intense job as it has a specific time frame. A person can harvest about 200 kilos per day in high season," Aguilar said.
According to Aguilar, since the workers are paid per kilo, each harvester can be paid $600 to $700 per day, or more. It all depends on each worker's capacity to harvest, the productive conditions of the lands, and the competition wotj workers from other sectors. Cherry producers know that if they face a shortage of employees the daily wage will end up making the cherry harvest attractive.
Aguilar, for example, admitted that they outsourced the job to a pair of suppliers, and said that they didn't think they would have any problems due to a lack of labor this season.
The suppliers are in charge of the logistics, of getting the personnel, and transporting the product, refrigerating it, and having chemical baths. "We export to more than 20 countries and we have to have quality certifications to sell abroad," Aguilar said.
Meanwhile, Fernando Güizzo, a commercial reference of the family company that produces cherries in Carrodilla and in Alto Agrelo, said that they had their own harvest teams that work throughout the year and that they didn't have a shortage of workers so far.
He also acknowledged that, since it is manual work, the labor shortage for cherries was a global problem. He also said that he shouldn't have much of a problem getting labor for the early cherry harvest of his 40 hectares productive land.
Things, however, could be complicated for Aguilar in the year 2020, when his 100 hectare productive area will require the intense work of more than 350 workers to collect the fruit.
Source: losandes.com.ar