Central Coast farms struggling to find workers

A labor shortage continues to impact local farms in San Luis Obispo County. Farmers say inflation and housing prices are major contributors.

Finding workers has been nearly impossible for Morro Bay farmer Ibrahim Abuhial.

“Everything is expensive,” Abuhial said. “I need maybe another three to four guys.”

Farmer Dan Linhares agrees, adding that the cost of doing business has increased year after year.

“It's harder for us to find workers because of the price of the employee to come to work these days and they want way more than the little guy can afford,” Linhares said.

It’s impacting farms of all sizes in San Luis Obispo County, according to Catie Field, Deputy Executive Director at the SLO County Farm Bureau.

“We are having a smaller amount of domestic labor coming in and staying in the area and that's the cost of living, it’s increasing,” Field said.

Matt Merrill is the general manager of Mesa Vineyard Management and says he believes that housing prices and rent are contributing to the labor shortage.

“Employees have a hard time finding somewhere locally to live so they have to move away and have a farther distance to drive to get to work,” Merrill said. “You may end up losing them to whatever area they move to.”

Merrill thinks larger farms like his may be able to help out some of the smaller ones.

“As we start to slow down, maybe we can help them out and let them use some of the same crews we use,” Merrill said.

Linhares says it’s hard to keep up, adding that he’ll continue working long days.

“The bigger companies can afford that. We can't afford people who want to work unless it's for an exuberant amount of money,” Linhares said.

According to the USDA, net farm income is predicted to decrease by 21.7% this year, which would be the largest year-to-year drop in history.