MT. DORA, Fla. — The big freeze over the weekend took a toll on blueberry crops in Central Florida, as well as jobs of those who work in the fields and the packing houses.
At H & A Farms, owner Michael Hill says his blueberry crop was wiped out because of the cold snap over the weekend. “This whole farm is a complete loss.” They have a thousand acres of blueberry plants around the state. He cut into a blueberry to show us the inside. “That’s all brown, it’s supposed to be green.” Hill says they pack 40-percent of Florida’s blueberries, which go to stores like Publix, Aldi and Costco. And because these berries died, Michael says he will no longer need the 2,000 workers to pick them in the fields or the hundreds needed to pack them.
We talked to the Director of Business Operations Shannon Wells, “This unfortunately has a devastating impact on our workforce.” She says around 300 people will lose their jobs in the packing house and that’s not all. “Forklift operators, quality control specialists, shipping coordinators, that all the way into the packing house, our boxers, stackers, packers, all of those things. “
Michael Hill tells us, “ I’m in a kind of a nightmare mode right now.” A surreal domino effect, created by Mother Nature’s frigid cold spell. “t’s disrupting the whole entire industry.”
He says blueberries will be more expensive to buy and may have to come from out of state. “Get it declared as a as a disaster as a true disaster issue try to get some assistance for all the farmers that are going through this from the state or national level.”
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