essing market for berries that cannot be sold fresh.
With no significant import or export competition in the fresh market, strawberry growers are in a better position than other fruit and vegetable growers to pass some increases in labor costs along to consumers. But growers are facing import competition in the processing market, which creates pressure to reduce costs.
Strawberries may be one of the most difficult crops to mechanize; there is no commercial mechanical harvester available currently. Some growers are using a labor aid to boost labor productivity in the fields—a conveyor belt that moves slowly down the field just ahead of the workers to provide a platform where workers can place their full flats of berries instead of carrying the flats to trucks at the edge of the field.
Asparagus growers face intense import competition. Fresh asparagus imports accounted for 76 percent of average annual domestic fresh consumption in 2005-07, and this share is likely to continue increasing. With increasing imports, U.S. average annual production (fresh and processed) decreased 46 percent between 1990-92 and 2005-07. A prototype mechanical harvester is being tested but, in the meantime, growers may further reduce plantings.
Lettuce production is concentrated in California during the spring to fall seasons, with both California and Arizona supplying lettuce during the winter season. U.S. imports of lettuce are small, and export competition is not a concern. Baby leaf lettuce is mostly mechanically harvested, and it is unlikely the industry could have grown so rapidly without mechanization. The rest of the lettuce industry still uses hand harvesting. If wages rose, lettuce growers could probably pass on some increases in labor costs to consumers. Many firms are currently engaged in research on mechanical lettuce harvesters.
Adapting to rising wages
Labor is just one input in a complex production process, and growers have several options if wages rise. For example, growers may use less labor if the wage rate increases. Asparagus is typically harvested continuously over several months. If the price of asparagus is too low relative to labor costs, growers may stop harvesting a field, trading off the loss of income from reduced yields against the savings on labor costs.
Growers also may combat rising labor costs by using more labor aids to improve labor efficiency, such as replacing ladders with mobile platforms in apple orchards when pruning and thinning trees. Experts are developing platforms that are stable enough to support workers and apples during harvesting activities. If these efforts are successful, platforms could replace ladders and lead to improvements in productivity. Studies show that workers spend only 30 percent of their time picking apples; the rest is spent positioning and climbing ladders and unloading bags of fruit.
Growers may mechanize to replace costly labor if an economical mechanical alternative is available. However, mechanization often presents complex technical challenges. A machine cannot easily mimic the judgment and dexterity of experienced farmworkers, particularly when crops do not mature evenly, and workers must determine what can be harvested during multiple passes through fields and orchards. Research and development (R&D) can be both expensive and time consuming, with success of mechanization difficult to predict. Developing a viable mechanized harvest system often depends on breakthroughs in three areas: machinery, varieties, and agricultural practices. Results from all three lines of research may not emerge at the same time.
The mechanical harvesting of processing oranges, for example, appears to have stalled while growers wait for the development of a complete mechanization system and not just a mechanical harvester. The mechanical harvester works well in the early part of the Florida processing orange season. But it cannot be used on late-season Valencia oranges, which account for 25-30 percent of Florida’s total processing orange harvest. At harvest time, late-season Valencia orange trees co