How many months out of the year do farmworkers harvest tomatoes?
Farmworkers who harvest tomatoes can work about 10 months of the year actually picking tomatoes. For seven months of the year (November – May), workers can pick in the Immokalee area. During the summer months, which are approximately three, farmworkers can travel up to northern Florida and the East Coast states to continue picking during the summer season. For the rest of the year, when picking is not available locally, workers can find employment in the various tasks of cultivation in the tomato industry — laying plastic, planting, pruning, tying, and pulling up plastic. TOP In many cases, workers pick for the same Florida-based company year-round, even while working in different states. One of Taco Bell’s principal suppliers, for example, is based in Immokalee, but has operations in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and its Immokalee-based crews work the fields in all those states.
