HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Produce growers are facing several challenges as they head into 2022, including inflation, supply chain disruptions, a labor shortage, and market disruptions due to the ongoing pandemic.
“There’s just so much unsureness with the future of the market,” said Jeffrey DeMott, President of Redland Nursery.
Growers in south Miami-Dade County are facing a flood of import and continued Covid-related market disruptions.
“The best thing growers have going is the grocery stores, that is the most stable pricing,” said Sam Accursio of Sam S. Accursio and Sons Farms. “(The issues) have made the market go down our break-even cost, and we are trying to get rid of our excess. Demand American grown; demand grown from Florida.”
One example is cruise ships, which are not yet back at full steam and previously were a big buyer of locally grown product.
“We have adjusted our plantings down, we have reduced our acres by 300 acres this year to try and combat the COVID mess, we don’t know where we are going to be next month,” Accursio said.
A shortage of truck drivers to move product is also a big problem.
“Labor shortage has been another issue entirely, not affected just by the disease itself but just because it has been tough to get a more stable workforce available,” said DeMott. “At Redland Nursery we do a lot of exporting and that has been one of the issues is the equipment is there, the ports that we ship out of here in South Florida they are operating, and we don’t have a problem getting bookings, but then the ship day will come, we are ready to load a container, and no container arrives, mainly because they haven’t been able to get enough of their labor in order to deliver us that container on time which then we can turn it around to our consumers, so that has been an issue.”
Now tack on inflation, creeping into the nursery industry’s supply chain inputs.
“The pots, the soil, the fertilizer, the chemicals, all of our inputs we have seen that kind of trickled raise throughout the year,” said DeMott.
All these variables are making planning for production and distribution over the next year challenging.
“Without really knowing where we are going or whether or not we are going to be able to deliver those goods, we are dealing with a product that you know has a life stage and if we don’t get that product turned around in that time period, unfortunately it gets dumped, or there’s just very little recourse to send it somewhere else in the market,” said DeMott.
But these local growers, who through generations have weathered hurricanes and hail, frost, and unseasonably warm seasons, express a grit and determination to also overcome this.
“I worked my whole life doing this, 40 years full time, this was my 40th year putting seed and I am not ready to throw the white towel up,” said Accursio. “We are fighting, and we will continue to fight and not throw the white towel up to stay in business because we are charged to feed the world.”
Added DeMott: “It is a lot of unsureness and hopefully we are over the worst of this and we are headed toward a nice recovery and we can gain grounds that way.”
During the pandemic Accursio developed a direct-to-consumer model to make up for some of their traditional markets which evaporated when the pandemic started. That included opening a local store, which is still up and running, where he sells his produced and the produce of other growers. They are also taking e-commerce orders. For more info visit https://www.accursiofarms.com/.
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