“It’s so hard to get people to cut cabbage, and even in the process of packing it, there’s a lot of heavy work there, hauling heavy crates around,” Kaczka said. “It just takes a lot of help manning it, very labor-intensive.”
Fortunately, the transition of cabbage fields to (mostly) green beans has been successful.
“We have gotten a very good reputation around produce business, and we have a lot of longtime customers,” Meyer said.
Unlike sweet corn and green beans, cabbage for the fresh market can’t be harvested mechanically. Papen Farms does use H-2A temporary visa workers, for preparing the corn and packing the vegetables.
“Corn comes into the packinghouse and has to be graded and packed and cooled, and either put on the truck or in storage,” Meyer said.
Kaczka said the Dover location is ideal for supplier major terminal market wholesalers in Baltimore, New York and Boston.
According to Meyer, Chris Cunningham, who lives in Georgia, has sold Papen Farms’ products for about 12 years. He’ll be at the Dover office by early June and stay through the end of the fall green bean crop, which typically winds down in mid-October.
Papen Farms Vice President Jeff Papen said input prices have come down after supply chain issues and inflation during COVID and after, but that they are still a considerable expense.
“Obviously, it would make things better if input costs were lower, but you’ve got to buy certain things to grow a product,” Papen said.
Photo: Jeff Papen, Carol Traegler, Janet Meyer and Tony Kaczka
