The chairman of the Farmers Association, Héctor Cordero, said on Thursday that the next workers arriving in Puerto Rico to work in agriculture will be from Honduras.
“Honduras has contacted us at the Association and they are very interested. Yesterday I had a meeting with the Minister of the Interior (Noelia García) and since these were all private meetings of farmers, she asked us if the Association would help the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Agriculture. to create some basic guides to this process. We have already contacted our role in Washington, the American Farmers Bureau, to help us with the draft to set it up permanently until the Puerto Rican wakes up, ”Cordero said in a radio interview (NotiUno).
According to Cordero, it takes between 500 and 600 braceros to address Puerto Ricans’ lack of interest in agriculture.
The farmer said that workers from the Dominican Republic and Mexico have already arrived on the island.
He also argued that most farmers pay more than the minimum wage to keep the right hand from escaping.
“In the dairy sector, my employees are close to $ 10 an hour because they are skilled workers and especially difficult to recruit. And it is strong, because if the milk price falls, you have to take your employees into account.
Here, banana and vegetable workers pay him about $ 8 to $ 9 an hour because he is a skilled and responsible worker.
Cordero said that at the moment of 13 thousand farmers in Puerto Rico, there are 8 thousand.