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CapitalPress.com
Friday, August 6, 2021
Nursery industry: A boost from stay-at-home year
and always have been,”
said Curt Kipp, commu-
nications and marketing
director for the Oregon
Association of Nurser-
ies. But for some nursery
owners, this year’s labor
situation is concerning.
Mark
Krautmann
owns Heritage Seed-
lings & Liners in Mar-
ion County and said he
cannot get enough labor.
“The whole labor thing
has gotten to the crisis
point,” he said.
Krautmann said that
the nursery industry is
experiencing such a high
demand for labor that if
his contractors receive
an offer that is a quarter
of a dollar more, “they’ll
literally drop their tools
and leave.”
According to OAN’s
2019 figures, about 9,162
people are employed by
Oregon nurseries. Ore-
gon is one of the top
three nursery-producing
states in the U.S., and
nursery stock ranks as
the top agricultural com-
modity in the state.
Brooks Tree Farm has
also experienced a labor
shortage for years. Kathy
LeCompte, owner of the
nursery, told Capital
Press that it keeps get-
ting worse as the years
progress and points to
the need for immigration
reform to alleviate the
By MIA RYDER-MARKS
Capital Press
Like most of Oregon’s
nurseries, Peoria Gar-
dens Inc. has had a “very
fortunate” year so far.
Ben Verhoeven, the
second-generation owner
of the nursery, said the
combination of good
weather and people stay-
ing at home have boosted
his season.
“As people were stay-
ing at home, and often
working from home and
they weren’t able to
spend money on travel
and leisure activities, we
saw a lot of people kind
of take interest in beau-
tifying ... their homes,”
he said.
Nationally, the nurs-
ery industry experienced
a similar boost.
Charlie Hall, a horti-
cultural economist and
professor at Texas A&M
University, said that
in 2020, 75% of nurs-
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ery growers experienced
sales increases ranging
from 5% to 25%. He said
it is a good indicator that
the housing sector is per-
forming well. The hous-
ing boom has driven the
demand for many nurs-
ery plants, including edi-
ble plants, flowers and
shrubs.
Labor shortages
S252558-1
As sales increase, the
industry’s labor shortage
gets worse.
Nurseries across the
state have for years
struggled with a tight
labor market. However,
some in the industry say
it is notably worse this
year.
“Labor shortages are a
problem in the industry,
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problem.
“We desperately need
common sense, agreed
upon planned immigra-
tion legislation that spe-
cifically benefits people
that have the jobs that
Americans don’t want,”
LeCompte said. “None
of us want to take a job
away from an American
who wants it, (but) there
are so many jobs in agri-
culture, landscaping, the
dairy industry, fisheries
... that Americans just
don’t want.”
She added: “We des-
perately need to get
those filled.”
Looking forward
Hall, the economist,
said the industry outlook
is looking strong for next
spring, and the industry
shouldn’t worry about
an
economic
down-
turn until 2023 at the
earliest.
However, there are
some things the industry
cannot predict that could
impact it — such as the
spread of the Delta vari-
ant of COVID-19 or the
federal government rais-
ing interest rates too
quickly and the housing
boom cooling off.
“We’re all hopeful
that by 2022 it’s normal,
except that there’s a lot
more people gardening,”
Verhoeven said.