BARRIE -- The pandemic has resulted in suspended flights and travel, leaving many industries struggling to operate, including farming, which relies on migrant workers.
In the Holland Marsh, Eek Farms depends on its workers from Trinidad each season who are highly skilled and trained in transplanting onions and harvesting carrots.
"If I were to state that the challenges we're facing are overwhelming, that would be an understatement," explains Avia Eek.
The Canadian border has opened to temporary foreign workers, but some countries, including Trinidad, aren't allowing travel, even to Canada for work.
"Without the work we do, and without the assistance that we get from our temporary foreign workers, we can't feed you," says Eek.
As the season approaches, and the timeframe for transplanting onions arrives, the Eek's don't know if their workers will get here on time.
Their overall goal is to feed the public and to keep the farm-to-table chain flowing.
Jodie Mott, the executive director of the Holland Marsh Growers Association, admits the ever-evolving COVID-19 circumstances make it difficult to predict what will come.
Mott adds that fruit and vegetable farmers are at risk of an overload of wasted food that will spoil with no foreign workers to help.
"The next three weeks in corn culture is very important," says Mott. "They have to get the stuff in the ground because it has to germinate, so if it's not in by the first couple of weeks of May, we're looking at something different here."
Mott says it will come down to just how many crops will be harvested this season, and what price the public will pay in the end.
