January 16, 2015
CapitalPress.com
13
Will usage of H-2A workers continue to grow?
H-2A from Page 1
Growers are evaluat-
ing whether they can afford
$12.42 per hour based on how
well they did with their 2014
harvests, he said. But he pre-
dicted usage of H-2A work-
ers will continue to grow by
double digit percentages in
Washington, California and
Oregon for the foreseeable
future regardless of AEWR
and immigration reform.
Central Washington tree
fruit growers have used more
H-2A workers in recent years
to offset labor shortages.
When the 2015 AEWR was
announced a month ago,
some said they will continue
to hire more H-2A workers
because they can’t afford not
to.
Most pickers make more
than the AEWR anyway on
piece rate because of their
speed of picking. Still the
increase in AEWR causes
piece rates to go up, said Tom
Riggan, general manager at
Chelan Fresh Marketing.
The U.S. Department of
Labor approved 9,077 H-2A
workers in 2014 for Wash-
ington, up from 6,221 in 2013
and 4,546 in 2012. Of the
total, about 94 percent were
in tree fruit and 6 percent in
other crops. About 80 percent
are recruited for growers by
WAFLA.
California had 6,043
H-2A workers in 2014, up
from 4,200 and Oregon had
238.
“I think California will
be explosive in the next cou-
ple of years because it needs
more labor and the only guar-
anteed way is H-2A,” said
Lee Wicker, deputy director
of the North Carolina Grow-
ers Association.
Historically, California
and the West Coast haven’t
needed H-2A workers be-
cause of an abundant supply
of illegal immigrants cross-
ing from Mexico, Wicker
said.
The Southeast has strug-
gled with farmworker short-
ages longer because it is far-
ther away from the Mexican
border, he said. Now fewer
cross the border because it is
expensive and dangerous, he
said.
Washington is surpassed
in H-2A workers only by
North Carolina at 14,502,
Florida at 13,544 and Geor-
gia at 10,387.
North Carolina’s AEWR
increased 45 cents to $10.32
for 2015. Florida dropped 7
cents to $10.19 and Georgia
stayed at $10.
North Carolina’s usage
of H-2A workers in tobac-
co, fruits and vegetables has
been increasing at 18 to 20
percent a year and there’s
no indication of slowdown,
Wicker said.
“We have growers calling
every day saying send me
an application package,” he
said.
The AEWR in North Car-
olina has increased an aver-
age 3.7 percent a year for the
past 25 years, Wicker said.
This year it went up 4.6 per-
cent.
Bird fl u barrier forces Washington ‘The quarantine will only be in
place long enough to tell if we have
hatchery to kill healthy chicks
enza showing up in two back-
yard fl ocks in Benton County,
Wash., and one in Douglas
County, Ore.
Previously, a wild duck
and captive falcon near Lyn-
den, about 27 miles from
Bellingham, were found to
have had bird fl u. The virus
struck 11 B.C. poultry farms
and one non-commercial
fl ock between Dec. 1 and 19.
But it was the cases of bird
fl u that struck 290 miles away
in the southern end of Wash-
ington that caused problems
for Rock Creek Farms, which
has no way to feed or water
the chicks.
For several days, Pellebo-
of eggs, poultry and other
poultry products from the
zone, according to WSDA.
Exemptions will be
made for operations that
obtain permits from the
WSDA.
“The quarantine will only
be in place long enough to
tell if we have successfully
contained the virus, so we
could lift if in a matter of
weeks,” WSDA spokesman
Hector Castro said.
The quarantine will not
prevent anyone selling eggs
inside the zone to continue
to do so if customers come
to them, he said. “The risk
is with the movements be-
tween the properties.”
A 140-bird flock near
Benton City was identified
Dec. 31 with the virus, the
first time highly pathogenic
bird flu had ever been diag-
nosed in domestic birds in
Washington. About a week
earlier, ducks from that
flock had been transferred
to another backyard flock
9 miles away. Some 500
birds in that flock were eu-
thanized Jan. 6.
A backyard flock next
to the first flock was tested
Area in
detail
28
Moses
Wash. Lake
90
Potholes
Res.
26
17
Othello
26
24
Quarantine
zone
260
b
Riv
ia
Young chicks are seen in this
fi le photograph.
FLU from Page 1
m
Courtesy of USDA ARS
successfully contained the virus’
lu
Co
A Bellingham, Wash.,
hatchery was forced to euth-
anize 22,000 healthy chicks
Jan. 9 because of trade re-
strictions imposed by Can-
ada after bird fl u was found
in non-commercial fl ocks in
south-central Washington.
Canadian authorities re-
laxed the ban Jan. 13 and
allowed 65,000 imperiled
chicks to be delivered to a
Chilliwack, British Columbia,
poultry farm owned by the
same parent company, K&R
Poultry.
“It was a big sigh of re-
lief,” said Harvey Pellebo-
er, manager of the hatchery,
Rock Creek Farms.
Pelleboer said he was
shocked to learn Jan. 7 that
the Canadian Food Inspec-
tion Agency wouldn’t let
the chicks across the border.
The hatchery produces about
100,000 chicks a week, he
said.
The next day, the agen-
cy announced all birds, raw
meat and poultry products
raised, processed or shipped
from Washington and Oregon
would be barred until further
notice.
The ban was a response to
highly pathogenic avian infl u-
er was uncertain whether he
would have to euthanize the
65,000 chicks and 20,000
more chicks due to hatch by
week’s end.
“It was a nightmare,” he
said. “Here I am, sitting with
65,000 chicks.”
On the afternoon of Jan.
13, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture said it had re-
solved the problem. By 5:30
p.m., Pelleboer’s chicks were
able to cross the border.
USDA’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service and
the Washington Department
of Agriculture worked with
the Canadian agency to re-
solve the issue, according to
USDA spokeswoman Joelle
Hayden.
Canadian authorities have
now limited their restrictions
to parts of Benton and Frank-
lin counties, the vicinity of the
two infected non-commercial
fl ocks. The hatchery can now
ship chicks to Canada, she
said in an email.
Efforts to obtain comment
from CFIA were unsuccess-
ful.
Pelleboer said he tests reg-
ularly for bird fl u and credited
the USDA with intervening
on the farm’s behalf.
“They’re doing a phenom-
enal job, trying to help us,”
Pelleboer said.
395
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Capital Press
Richland
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By DON JENKINS
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Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
but is free of bird flu, Cas-
tro said.
WSDA and U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture are dis-
infecting both sites.
Castro said the owner
of the first flock occasion-
ally sold birds. He said he
didn’t know of any busi-
ness activity by the owner
of the second flock.
The outbreak of bird flu
here is part of the global
spread of highly pathogen-
ic H5N2 and H5N8 viruses.
Officials believe the virus
is being transmitted to do-
mestic birds in Asia, Eu-
rope and North America by
migrating waterfowl. The
wild birds are able to sur-
vive the virus, which has
been deadly to a variety of
domestic birds.
A die-off of domesticat-
ed guinea fowl in Douglas
County in Southern Oregon
in mid-December led to the
discovery of an infected
backyard flock.
Wild ducks in Whatcom
County, Wash., and Butte
County, Calif., were found
infected by H5N2.
The appearance of high-
ly pathogenic bird has
caused some countries to
impose restrictions, partic-
ularly on poultry and poul-
try products from Oregon
and Washington.
U.S. officials say the
virus has not been found
at commercial operations
and that the virus has not
caused any human illness.
Highly
pathogenic
H5N2 forced 245,600 birds
to be culled at 11 British
Columbia, Canada, poultry
farms in December.
See
www.agr.wa.gov/
lawsrules/rulemaking for
the complete WSDA quar-
antine rule and a map of the
quarantine zone.
3-5/#4N