Last Updated on Monday, 10 October 2011 15:05 Written by Lou Phelps Monday, 10 October 2011 00:00
SBJ Staff Report
Oct. 10, 2011 - The University of Georgia’s Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development has released a report written by professors John C. McKissick and Sharon P. Kane, that captures the labor shortage that Georgia farmers experienced this past Spring and early Summer, and the economic losses to the State.
The new Georgia immigration laws, and perception by migrant farm workers of enhanced enforcement in Georgia, has led to a worker-drain so far this year according to agriculture industry leaders.
Affording to the UGA report, various Georgia agricultural businesses have reported labor shortages during this time period. “The situation appeared most acute in those perishable fresh fruit and vegetable crops just reaching harvest in spring to early summer. These crops are most dependent on timely seasonal harvest and packing labor in order to market perishable, high valued products,” they state.
The report provides a preliminary summary and analysis of the magnitude and economic impact actually reported by producers of seven primary Georgia berry and vegetable crops including Georgia blueberry, blackberry, Vidalia onion, bell pepper, squash, cucumber and watermelon crops which accounted for more than $578 million dollars of production value in 2009.
In addition to a survey instrument developed by the UGA team, the authors and their staffs conducted follow up interviews on incomplete surveys. All raw data collected absent any respondent identification was provided to economists at the UGA Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development for analysis and summary.
Of the total responses, 41 of the respondents, representing 19.7 percent of the survey production acreage and 9.1 percent of Georgia’s 2009 acreage, responded they did not experience harvest/packing labor shortages. 148 survey respondents reported they had experienced labor
shortage, representing 80.3 percent of the survey production acreage and 37.3 percent of Georgia’s 2009 acreage. “It is apparent that a significant number of Georgia’s spring Berry and Vegetable producers experienced labor shortages in the spring of 2011,” they conclude.
The Economic Consequences
Utilizing detailed historical and 2011 production and cost data supplied by the survey respondents, the authors calculated production losses or gains incurred by the survey respondents and those attributed to labor for the seven spring crops.
Multiple questions allowed for consistency checks across the data as did the historical yield and price data. Loss calculations were derived from expected yield and price questions and compared to actual production realized from the acreage available for harvest. The direct losses attributable to labor shortages were estimated to be 5,244 farm laborers and $74.9 million in losses from those seven crops.
Their conclusion is that taking in other factors, the total loss attributed in 2011 from just the Spring and early summer alone, due to labor in the seven crops, would be about $140 million based on loss per acre per crop. But that’s just the loss by the farmers.
Using multiplier impacts, they include money normally generated from all processing companies, suppliers to the farmers, retail sales and retail businesses that would have had customers from those employed by the fruit and vegetable producers and suppliers.
The impacts reach further into the economy as the retailers then ultimately purchase less from others. “On and on the impacts spin through the state and region’s economy, resulting in fewer goods and services or state output produced in a multitude of industries and business not directly associated with fruit and vegetable production,” they explain.
If the survey results were representative of all acreage, the total yearly impact could be as high as $391 million and the job loss would be another 3,260 on a statewide basis.









