Juicy strategy

The tastiness of a ripe strawberry defies the difficulties in getting the fruit to market.

“Strawberry picking is not an easy game,” says Gary Wishnatzki, third generation owner of Wish Farms in Plant City. “It's a young person's game, and you really need people just arriving [in this country] hungry for work who will do this.”

That type of worker isn't always easy to find. California — where some Wish Farms growers are located — had labor shortages this past summer. Farmers often have to use H-2A temporary agricultural worker visas, a “costly and burdensome program,” says Wishnatzki. And changes in immigration patterns are causing concern. More Mexican immigrants, for example, returned to Mexico from the U.S. than migrated here from 2009 to 2014, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis.