Labor positives in the Valley

Location isn’t the only perk of doing business in the Rio Grande Valley.

San Juan, TX-based Rio Fresh, Inc. is a specialist in domestically grown cabbage, onions, and mixed greens, and also imports Mexican onions.

While the grower-shipper acknowledges its ideal location, the abundance of labor throughout the region is another advantage that can’t be overlooked—which proved essential for an especially bountiful 2018 onion crop. A colder-than-usual winter left onion fields untouched but killed many overwintering insects and disease, which bodes well for next season.

Despite more workers than other regions, growers still struggle. “The availability of labor is still a challenge,” said Courtney Schuster Moore, who works in sales at Rio Fresh’s family business. “But we (in the Valley) seem to have an advantage over other areas.”

One reason could be the unemployment rate, which has recently been as low as 4.9 percent (in McAllen) to as high as 9.1 percent (in Starr County). The higher the rate, the more people are looking for work.

In speaking of labor, one segment of the fresh produce industry relies a bit more heavily on its workers: organics. Though organic acreage has increased within the state, it is not a significant part of the Rio Grande Valley’s crop profile.

This is an excerpt from the most recent Produce Blueprints quarterly journal. Click here to read the full supplement.