Guest Entry: The Tomato Project Continued

The following is a guest entry by Michael Lewis:

On my second day in the tomato greenhouse, Felipe had gone to Santa Cruz del Quiche for the day to pitch our stevia plants to an exporter association. Not sure how successful he was, but I stayed behind to work with Victor, who is also a native K’iche’ speaker. Victor is about the same age as Felipe, early 20s, but unlike Felipe he is married and has a daughter. Like many people in this community, Victor really wants to go to the United States. Here the average wage for someone like him is $10 USD a day (actually a little less, Q70). In the United States he could potentially earn ten times that even at minimum wage.

Everyone here knows this, which is why between 5% and 10% of the town’s residents currently live in the United States (this number varies depending on who you ask). People want to go over, even if it means going over illegally. So it’s not surprising that Victor asked if I knew how to get a visa. I told him the best way would be to get a work sponsor, but this is difficult if he doesn’t have specialized skills or a college degree. Second best would be to apply for a student visa.

There are several English language schools which will sponsor a student visa, so this is probably his most likely legal option in the near term, but based on what an old roommate from Mexico told me (who was also on a student visa when he first came over), Victor would only be allowed to work 20 hours a week during the school year, and he would be capped at 40 hours a week during the summer. Of course if he enrolled in a school, he would also have to pay tuition on top of his rent, so the economic benefit of the higher wage could be wiped out entirely depending on where he was living and how much he was earning.

And unfortunately Victor's just not that interested in getting more education. Victor just wants to go over and work for three years, save up as much as he can, and then return to his wife and daughter with some money that they can use to buy a house (something that would run $25,000 USD to $35,000 USD in Paxtocá). A job in the U.S. could definitely help, but the problem is getting there.

Anyhow, on that note I should go back to the tomatoes. The tomato project is about 900m². Our goal for the day was to accomplish the weekly harvest.  We ended up harvesting 10 boxes of 24 kg each (almost 53 lbs). In a good week the greenhouse can produce anywhere between 30 and 40 boxes of tomatoes, but we’re near the end of the growing cycle. Probably a third of the plants are already dying, and a new crop will need to be planted. Most of the others are just past their prime, but still producing.

Right now the tomato operation really doesn’t earn that much money. They pull in Q3-4 per pound (about $0.50 USD). This comes out to be about $265 USD for this week's harvest. During the summer production is up, but prices also drop to Q1-2 per pound, so the larger harvest doesn’t always equate to much more money. Honestly I don’t think these prices are that different from what farmers in the States would pull in. It looks to me like we grow roma tomatoes, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen roma tomatoes go for as cheap as $1 a pound at Ralphs back in Los Angeles, ranging as high as $2 a pound in winter (someone is welcome to correct me on these numbers), but the farmers themselves probably get less. Even at those prices they couldn’t pay their employees ten times the rate. The difference has got to be in the scale of production.

Anyhow, I'm told there is a market in Salcajá that operates on Tuesdays and Saturdays, which is where most of our tomatoes end up. The guys running the tomato operation never go to the market themselves. Instead people will come to the greenhouse and buy our tomato harvest, and then take them to the market to sell. Every once in a while someone will come to us to buy a box or two to be used locally, usually for a big event like a wedding or a funeral.

One nice thing about the operation is that they try not to let anything go to waste. After we collect all the tomatoes we inspect then and get rid of anything that is soft, damaged, or diseased. We might lose as much as 5% of the harvest because of defects like these. But my first time there a lady came by to collect the rejected tomatoes (which were beginning to rot by the time she got there). She said she uses them to feed her animals. When I asked Felipe he said she never specifies what kind of animal, but presumably her chickens as everyone here has chickens. Possibly her goats or pigs as well.