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Please follow this link – http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/03/162145140/inwashingtonstatepickershortage-threatens-apple-boom – to NPR.org and read/listen to the article on the apple market in
Washington.
NO BULLET LISTS.
1. Provide a one to two paragraph summary of the article in your own words. (6 points)
2. Draw a supply and demand graph that shows the impacts in the market that are causing the changes
and describe the changes that occur in the model. (10 points)
3. List the factors (supported by the article) which cause the supply and/or demand to shift, then
discuss the impact on your graph as it relates to the MARKET FOR WASHINGTON APPLES. Use specific
examples of factors that have impacted supply and/or demand to explain the activity in your graph. (8
points)
4. You must site specific examples that support the resulting changes in equilibrium price and quantity
shown in your graph, and describe how the price and quantity sold change in moving to the new
equilibrium. Finally, describe the process by which the market finds the new equilibrium (Is there a
shortage or surplus at the old price? How do you know? Who is unhappy? How will they react?).
The GRAPH MUST BE on a separate page, not squirreled into the paper to make it
appear longer.(6 points)
The graph may be hand-drawn or produced via software, either is
fine. However, neatness counts on the graph and it must be on a separate sheet of paper (not mixed in with
the text).
In Washington State, Picker Shortage Threatens Apple Boom – Anna King
Updated October 3, 20125:57 PM ET Published October 3, 20123:25 AM ET
In western Michigan, there aren’t enough apples to pick because bad weather decimated 85 to 90 percent of the
crop. But Washington State has the opposite problem there’s an abundance of apples, but not enough pickers.
This should be the happiest, busiest time of year in Washington apple orchards. But now just as the peak of
apple harvest is coming on Broetje Orchards manager Roger Bairstow is wincing.
“There are quite a few of us that aren’t sleeping through the night,” he says.
Right now, Broetje has nearly 2,000 workers. They’re out on tall aluminum ladders plucking dusty red and green
apples from the trees. Music plays from the smartphones of workers, and Gala apples thud gently into the waiting
bins.
But Bairstow says the orchard still needs at least 200 more experienced pickers. And apples have a limited branch
life.
“The longer an apple stays on the tree, the worse the condition gets and the less likelihood of getting a good price
on the market,” Bairstow says. “So at some point, it’s not even worth picking.”
If the fruits are left on the tree too long, they can only be used for apple sauce or juice, which is less profitable than
whole fruit.
The labor shortage comes as Washington States apples are worth more. That’s because competitors like New York,
Michigan, Canada and Europe have low yields this year due to bad weather. And China, the world’s biggest apple
producer, is keeping more of its fruit at home to feed an expanding middle class.
With the strong market, Washington farmers are going to extremes to get and keep workers. Some are buying
commuter vans to transport employees from one orchard to the next. Others are paying up to 15 percent more in
wages or giving bonuses for workers who stay the whole season.
Broetje is building its own rental apartments in town and advertising for pickers as far away as Arizona and Ohio.
The fastest workers can earn about $1,000 per week.
“The price is good,” apple picker Ruiz Olman says, and he likes working here. Olman is earning about $50 more
each week compared with last year. And, for him, this orchard is easier to get to from where he lives.
But the work is physically demanding. Jeff Rippon, a manager at nearby Chiawana Orchards, says pickers have to
scale tall ladders and carry 40-pound sacks of apples on their chests for at least eight hours a day. He’ll hire anyone
who wants the work, but he says he has trouble finding enough people. So, like many farmers across the country,
he ends up relying on migrant workers.
“I’ve been picking apples since 1965, and I’ve never seen a white person yet pick more than an hour,” Rippon says.
“Seriously! By the time you get the paperwork done, they’ve decided it’s too hard to do.”
Another problem for farmers is that fewer migrant workers are coming up from Mexico. That’s because there’s
more violence and increased security on the border.
It’s too late to fix these problems for this year, but farmers are planning for the future. Some are planting new,
shorter trees so picking is easier. Others are developing mobile platforms to help pickers gather apples without
ladders. Rippon says one way or another, growers who want to stay in business will have to address the labor
shortage.
“A few people will go broke and a few people will make a whole lot of money. And the people that will make the
money are the ones who can adapt to change. It’s just a fact of life,” Rippon says.
For now, apple farmers are racing winter. Workers will stop showing up in the orchards as the colder weather sets
in. Many farmers worry that in these next few weeks, the worker shortage will only turn more rotten.
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