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First it was the rainy weather. Now some strawberry growers in Cape Breton face a shortage of pickers. Eddie Rendell, who owns a farm near Point Aconi, lost five acres of his berries to the heavy rain over the weekend. There are plenty of other berries that need picking, he says, but the problem is there aren't enough workers to do it.

"I have 50 or 60 up there today, but I could have used 100," he told CBC News. "What's the use in growing [strawberries] if you can't get them picked?" Rendell says the young people he used to hire are not around anymore. This year he took his search for workers directly to local schools, and he advertised in the local newspaper as he does every summer.

Rendell says this shortage of workers is also affecting the two other strawberry growers in the area. He worries the berries in his fields will rot this summer, while stores stock their shelves with imported strawberries. "It's too bad because then we've got to depend on the California berries, if people want berries," Rendell said.

With a shortage of workers in the strawberry fields, it seems the best way for people to get berries is to pick them themselves. "It's cheaper than buying them in the stores," said Mary Merlin, leaving Rendell's Farm with a trunk full of strawberries. Rendell expects the season to last another two weeks.

Publication date: 7 Jul. 2006
Author: Isnet office