2022 SPECIALTY CROP AUTOMATION REPORT
5.1 INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE
The impact analysis section aims to map the status of auto- mation in the specialty crop industry and assess its impact on the industry. Data reported in this chapter was gathered through a combination of individual grower interviews and the dedicated survey, targeted at member growers from Western Growers and partner associations, such as the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, FIRA and the California Table Grape Commission. This year’s impact anal- ysis builds on last year’s inaugural analysis, which provided a baseline for the status of automation in the specialty crop industry. It aims to provide insight on progress made as well as additional insights on the impact of automation on the specialty crop industry in Europe. Automation technologies are attracting increasing interest from growers in Europe and the U.S. As labor costs and regulations continue to increase, the technology offers the opportunity to improve the return on investment (ROI) on automation projects. Automation also helps to address the
growing challenge of unavailability of adequate labor for harvests. Indeed, 33 percent of growers identified labor availability as their most pressing challenge in the survey, while another 34 percent identified it as their second biggest challenge. This made labor availability the second largest reported challenge, behind farm profitability. Difficulty in finding adequate labor results in growers struggling to har- vest all their planted crop. Ultimately, this damages growers’ top line, and in combination with increasing labor costs, puts further pressure on profitability. Survey respondents indicate that labor makes up approx- imately half of their total costs, a figure that is rising (see Figure 31). In the U.S., labor costs as a percentage of total costs have risen from 50 percent in 2019 to 54 percent in 2022. They are slightly lower in Europe, having grown from 47 percent in 2020 to 49 percent in 2022. Most growers ex- pect labor costs to increase by 10-30 percent or more in the next three to five years.
FARM LABOR COSTS IN THE US AND EUROPE ARE EXPECTED TO RISE BY 10-30% IN THE NEXT 3-5 YEARS
Labor cost % of total production cost [average]
Expectations for labor costs, next 3-5 years [% share of respondents]
US
EU
4%
Increase by more than 50%
54
15%
Increase by 30-50%
50
52
47
48 49
Increase by 10-30%
67%
9% 6%
Increase by 1-10%
Stable
2020
2021
2022
2020
2021
2022
2022
Source: Grower survey, Western Growers, Roland Berger Figure 31: Labor cost as a percentage of total costs, [average]; expectations for labor costs [percent share of respondents, based on survey results]
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