Work continues to get enough Mexican farm workers to Windsor-Essex after a delay over COVID-19 concerns.
This from Ken Forth, the president of Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services or FARM, who says local farms have about 90 per cent of the workforce needed to get through the season.
Last week, Mexico had stopped allowing workers to travel to Canada while outbreaks of COVID-19 were being reported at Windsor-Essex farms, but that ban was lifted Monday.
Forth told AM800's The Afternoon News there's still lots of work to do.
"We are getting caught up, but we're not there. We're at just under 90 per cent," he says. "That sounds like a good number if you're in a high school math class, but if you're a farmer that hasn't got his workers yet, I think it's important because he's got nobody or not enough staff."
Forth says farmers are remaining optimistic.
"We continue to bring workers in. It's obviously slower because nobody down there, or here for that matter, within the government ranks are working quite at full strength, but everybody is doing a reasonable job to get the folks here," he says." They keep coming and we're optimistic we'll still be able to still get the needs of most farmers in place."
Forth says farms have put a number of new safety measures in place.
"Most farmers are taking it really seriously and we're all doing the best we can with the protocols we have. We also have Ministry of Labour inspections to make sure you're doing as much as you can possibly do to keep all the workers safe and the farm families safe as well," he adds.
The Mexican government announced Sunday it would continue allowing farm workers to travel to Canada after securing promises for more inspections and oversight to curb the outbreaks.
On Monday, the local health unit reported another 32 cases of COVID-19 in Windsor-Essex with all but one are in the agri-food sector.
With files from Patty Handysides