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MBG Chair says clock is ticking for the future of blueberry growers

The chairman of the Michigan Blueberry Growers Association says it’s only a matter of time before the high cost of labor and operating expenses put some growers out of business.

Bill Fritz tells Brownfield his sixth-generation family farm has been growing blueberries since 1956.

“We’ve got some serious issues and we’re just trying to survive, and it doesn’t seem like the H-2A program is trying to help us out at all,” he says.

The family business used to custom harvest for growers across West Michigan, but the lack of labor and pressure from Peruvian imports has shifted its focus.

Fritz has been relying on the H-2A guest worker program for the past five years and says paying nearly 80 percent more than the state’s minimum has taken a toll.

“Between everything that we’ve gone through, if they come back this year and jack that up again to $20.00 an hour or whatever, it’s getting to the point where it’s not feasible for us to do it,” he shares.

He says labor costs are also compounding with increased operating expenses.

“We’re struggling with the cost of everything inflated—the fuel cost, the fertilizer costs, everything we touch, the chemicals—it’s just getting to be a tougher environment to be in business out here,” he explains. “We need some relief somehow.”

MBG Marketing represents more than 200 blueberry and blackberry growers across North America. Fritz says members would also like H-2A wages to be fixed at one rate for any grower in the U.S. using the program rather than regionally mandated.

Fritz recently hosted a farmer roundtable at his Paw Paw farm to discuss farm labor issues.