Michigan food businesses face talent shortage – Crain’s Detroit Business

Getting the right talent to power Michigan’s food economy can be a challenge.

As a manufacturing state, Michigan already has a large number of people working in highly automated and technically driven industries. But locating closer to growers often means establishing operations in rural areas that aren’t close to population centers, said Kurt Brauer, partner and chairman of the agribusiness and food industry group at Warner Norcross & Judd LLP in Southfield.

Talent is an issue throughout the food stream, from hiring what are typically migrant workers to pick the products, to getting the product into the processing facilities, to finding welders or mechanics to work on the equipment, and labor to work on the production line.

Jamie Zmitko-Somers, international marketing program manager, Michigan Department of Agriculture

To assist on that front, the state is looking at doing more…

Read the rest of the story here: Michigan food businesses face talent shortage – Crain’s Detroit Business