Florida Farms and Packinghouses Address COVID-19
March 30, 2020 By mid-March, it was becoming clear the massive disruptions that COVID-19 would have in the U.S. and globally. Outside the daily ticker of new infections, the news and other information sources repeated the sanitation and social distancing mantra to help lower the infection rate curve.
For Florida specialty crop growers who must keep their farms operational and retail shelves stocked, the crisis has put them on call to respond. Growers are adjusting daily in response to the situation.
Sanitation Measures Enhanced
While the general public gets accustomed to frequent hand washing and spraying down of often-touched places, specialty crop growers are continuing their sanitation protocols that are a part of their routine food safety programs. Many are enhancing those protocols to address COVID-19.
Plant City-based berry grower Wish Farms has deployed new measures. “Wish Farms already has a rigorous food safety program in place,” says Nick Wishnatzki, a Marketing Project Manager for the company. “However, during the COVID-19 crisis, our team is going above and beyond to safeguard our facilities, personnel, and management practices.”
Some of the additional practices being deployed at Wish Farms include:
- Cleaning the surfaces in warehouse facilities every two hours during operation
- Adding more hand washing stations at various locations
- Limiting access to only essential employees
- Screening essential employees for symptoms before entering facilities
- Any employee exhibiting signs of COVID-19 will be sent home
- Any employee and/or employee with a household member diagnosed with COVID-19 will be asked to stay home and be compensated up to 14 days for time missed
- All non-essential employees are working from home
Ryan Atwood is a blueberry grower from Umatilla and partner in the Billy Long Packinghouse in Mt. Dora. He says similar packinghouse precautions are being taken like those of Wish Farms.
“We have hired a full-time person to go around and wipe down all door handles, sink faucets, and other places people come into contact with,” Atwood says. “Literally, they disinfect all day long.”
Steve and Marie Bedner run a large commercial pepper farm and packing facility, and they own and operate two fresh retail markets in the Boynton Beach area. Operations continue as normal but with extra precautions.
“On our packing lines, we are spacing out our employees to provide distance between each person,” Marie Bedner says. “We’ve added extra breaks for employees, specifically for hand washing. We also are training employees on what COVID-19 is and have instructed everyone to notify management immediately if they do not feel well.”
At the Bedner’s Fresh Markets, deep cleaning and sanitation are conducted every evening after the markets close. Throughout the workday at both the packing facility and markets, commonly touched surfaces like doorknobs, faucets, tables, etc, are being cleaned regularly.
Market Response
Since the outbreak began, market demand has been strong for some Florida crops currently in season. Wishnatzki says strawberry growers are working hard to keep up.
“As an industry, we are under serious pressure to keep up with retail demand right now, and our team is working overtime to keep supply flowing to consumers.”
Demand is extending the strawberry season as the crop winds down. As blueberry season ramps up, demand is strong there. One broker noted that the category is up 20% year-over-year.
Derek Orsenigo, Production Manager for Grower’s Management Inc., says the market has been up and down throughout the virus outbreak. The farm’s major product is various leafy greens.
“Initially, when the COVID-19 outbreak started, our orders have fluctuated up and down throughout this virus scare,” he says. “Some days it was very slow with very few orders, and other days were a complete blowout with lots of orders to fill the great demand. But more recently, demand has fallen off sharply.”
Florida citrus growers are experiencing strong demand as consumers seek out the benefits of vitamin C to build up their immune systems. The orange juice futures market rose by more than 20% in March. That is the largest market rally since 2015.
But the picture for the state’s tomato growers is not positive. The industry largely depends on food service for most of its sales. With restaurants, schools, hotels, cruise lines, and other venues that rely on food service partially or entirely shut down, the market has crashed.
“While we’re doing our best to divert supplies to the grocery segment, it will not be nearly enough to offset the losses from the reduced business in food service,” says Michael Schadler, Executive Vice President of the Florida Tomato Exchange. “Needless to say, this is a disaster for most of our growers as we’re fully planted for the spring crop, which is just beginning to be harvested.”
Other Impacts
Thus far, Florida growers have not reported major disruptions in things like transportation or delivery of needed inputs or other supplies.
“We have not experienced any trouble with transportation or labor, and we have not run into any trouble acquiring inputs,” Orsenigo says. “We should be finished with our season in roughly five weeks (depending on markets), making it easier to deal with some of these issues for a short period of time rather than dealing with it for an entire season.”
Atwood says his H-2A labor is still working strawberry fields and his crop is coming in early, so he has been working the phones hard trying to source domestic labor.
Wishnatzki says what happens with H-2A labor visas could pose a potential threat and is something everyone is watching closely.
“We are awaiting H-2A updates from our trade associations,” he says. “In the meantime, we are in discussions with our labor providers on alternatives to bridge the gap if there is a shortfall.”
Helping Neighbors
Wishnatzki says this whole event has served as a good reminder to the public that agriculture is critical. It also is a chance for farmers to help their neighbors.
“Amidst this demand spike, we can’t lose sight of the fact that many millions of Americans are facing major financial stress due to job loss,” he says. “We have committed to donating 220,000 pounds (27,000+ flats) of fresh strawberries to Feeding Tampa Bay and The United Food Bank of Plant City.
“We stand ready to support our food bank partners now and even more in the future if necessary. We would strongly encourage all industry colleagues to connect with local food banks to help fill their urgent needs.”
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