In Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, asparagus growers are facing a shortage of harvesting staff due to the epidemic. Ontario’s asparagus harvesting started this week, and Bernie Solimer, executive director of the Ontario Asparagus Growers Association, predicts that only nearly half of the asparagus can be harvested, which is equivalent to asparagus worth $12 to 15 million. Stay in the ground. He said: "This year will be the worst year in the history of asparagus."Ontario farms are the area where Canada hires the most foreign workers, so the epidemic's control measures are also stricter. During the two-week quarantine period, the simple dormitory that can usually accommodate about 30 people is now only allowed for three people. The local growers are strongly dissatisfied with this and believe that this order will lead to a disadvantage when facing other production areas.Hiring local workers does not effectively reduce losses. Solimer said that overseas workers return regularly every year. They are trained and skilled workers, and their work efficiency is twice that of local workers. In addition, temporarily laid-off locals only regard the farm work as a transition, and will leave once they are reinstated. During this period of unemployment, once they work, they will lose $2,000 per month in government relief. On the other hand, since migrant workers have been isolated, their health risks are significantly smaller than local workers.

On May 5, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Agriculture Minister Mary-Claude Bieber said the federal government is working to solve the problem of introducing temporary foreign workers on Canadian farms, including expediting visa processing and additional diplomatic intervention. In April, 11,200 workers arrived in Canada, about 86% of the same period last year, but some of them were workers who had arrived in early March.Vine growers are also facing huge losses caused by personnel delays. Statistically, the additional labor cost may be as high as 20%, and when the grapes are sold in November, it is unlikely to receive an additional 20% from the winemaker, because the hotel industry itself is also in a difficult situation. During the quarantine period, domestic online alcohol sales were relatively strong, but the losses caused by the sharp decrease in tourists are difficult to make up.In Canada, more than 90% of seasonal agricultural workers are engaged in gardening. The Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Agency said it is known that there will be 2,000 workers from St. Vincent, Jamaica and Guatemala to Canada, which is only one-third of the same period in previous years.The biggest problem is visa processing. On May 8, Canada’s Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said that he was working hard to process 4,000 unresolved visa applications with the countries concerned. Nearly 11,000 workers with recently approved visas are ready to go to Canada, and the Mexican embassy says about 2,500 of them are in Mexico.

At present, growers across Canada generally face tremendous pressure. According to the Canadian Agricultural Federation, the shortage of agricultural manpower caused a loss of $2.9 billion in 2017, and the loss in 2020 will exceed this figure.

Translated from https://www.sohu.com/a/398277457_617283?spm=smpc.author.fd-d.8.1591173266938vLxl02n