(PORTLAND PRESS HERALD)– Hancock County is experiencing a harder labor shortage for the upcoming blueberry harvest season than they’re used to. Typically these positions are taken up by seasonal, migrant workers. However, two recent outbreaks in the area have left growers and harvesters such as Down East understaffed.
However, industry representatives and state officials feel confident that this will be a hindrance, but far from catastrophic. Eric Venturini, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine states:
“One advantage we’ve had during the pandemic over other sectors of the agricultural economy is time. Since March, the industry has been preparing for this. That’s how we were able to catch these cases as soon as they arrived.”
This preparation, unfortunately, cannot do anything to encourage people to work in agriculture. Which has been an ongoing struggle for many farmers long before COVID-19. Director of Maine’s Bureau of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, Nancy McBrady expands on this problem by saying
“It’s hard to fill agricultural jobs period, no matter the year and no matter the crop… We live in a time when agricultural jobs are not as attractive even though they are good jobs. So, we don’t have a local labor force that is able to fill the need. There were concerns already, and the COVID-19 pandemic really does exacerbate the problem.”
The state launched the ‘FarmingForME’ campaign to bring awareness to benefits and shortage of agricultural labor. The hope was that the recent nationwide surge in unemployment might encourage more people to take that step. However, this hasn’t necessarily been the case.
