On lookout for labour as hort harvests approach

The federal government recently closed submissions on a parliamentary inquiry on the working holiday program that considered the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and potential impacts on the national and regional economies.

Strategies already in place are the extension of visas for those already in the country, while the NT and federal governments introduced a pilot program, bringing in workers from Vanuatu for the mango harvest.

In its inquiry submission the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance said more needed to be done to attract local workers as well as support the remaining working holiday makers.

AFPA chief executive officer Michael Rogers said since March the number of working holiday makers in Australia had dropped by 40 per cent, down from 140,000 to 80,000.

"If that continues to decline, there won't be the required number of backpackers to do the jobs," he said.

He said the number of seasonal workers from Timor and the Pacific had also dropped from 12,000 to 8000.

"We had a lull during winter but as we head back into summer the dependence on the workforce is much more," he said.

Mr Rogers said the mango harvest in NT was the "first cab off the rank", with harvest moving south as it gets warmer.

He said the worst case scenario would be if all the working holiday makers went home, leaving an 80pc reduction in the national workforce, which would lead to a shortage in productivity and an estimated 60pc increase in the price of fruit and vegetables in the supermarkets.

"But we are working to make sure it doesn't become a reality," he said.

Mr Rogers said while it would be great to see Australians move into these roles, the reality was much of the work was in rural and regional areas and away from the population, with relocation a big decision.

He said out of 23,000 inquiries for work in eight major horticulture businesses, only 8pc were from Australians.

As part of the AFPA submission, they suggested a $1200 relocation grant, paid out after 12 weeks of work, to cover some of the expenses. moves to encourage working holiday makers to remain in Australia for longer and a "work bubble" with countries in the Pacific.

RELATED READING: Rural workers required to fill seasonal jobs

Pacific Islanders heading to Katherine to help mango harvest

Harvest chaos looms unless border restrictions change

The SA industry will be watching with interest the NT pilot program launched this week to help manage the labour shortfall for the mango harvest, given much of the traditional working holiday maker workforce is unable to assist.

On Tuesday, the federal and NT governments announced they would be bringing in 170 workers from Vanuatu to help ahead of the September harvest, with more workers to potentially follow.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said there would be stringent conditions in place to ensure community safety, including a 14-day self-isolation reqruirement and the NT chief health officer giving final go ahead for recruitment to begin.

"Growers will also need to meet conditions to participate including stringent labour market testing already required under the Seasonal Worker Programme," he said.

The NT Farmers Association is forecasting a shortage of 800 to 1000 workers with the mango industry worth nearly $109 million.

AusVeg SA chief executive officer Jordan Brooke-Barnett said he was hopeful the SA vegetable industry would not need this program, and could work to better attract and move the existing worker pool.

He said with the pilot only for 170 workers so far, which was very small in light of the thousands of seasonal worker program and working holiday maker reductions.

"It would have to be considerably expanded to have impact," he said. "What I would hope is that a program like that could alleviate some of the harvest needs up north and free up workers to move south."

Mr Brooke-Barnett said figures from the five biggest packhouses across SA, which include carrot, onions, potato and greenhouse growers, showed about 65 per cent to 70pc of the workforce was made up from Australians but there was still a shortfall of about 200 to 400 international workers to support harvest.

He said these jobs also had flow-on effects through the economy, so any reduction in productivity would have broader impacts.

Mr Brooke-Barnett said the biggest areas of concern were the Mallee and Riverland, with the need in areas near North Adelaide generally met through permanent residents or Australian workers.

He said the industry would be working with the SA government to attract workers but would also be trying to identify the ways it could better attract and retain staff itself.

Summerfruits SA executive officer Tim Grieger says the reliance of that industry on working holiday makers could vary but up to now has generally made up about 60pc of the workers during the summer harvest.

He said how harvest would proceed with the restrictions on international travel was a question on people's minds.

"It's still early days and something each individual grower will be working through with their networks and connections," he said.

He said the worst case scenario was, without people to perform harvest, the fruit would "fall on the ground", which could then impact prices.

"It is a highly labour intensive industry, not like some of the mechanised industries such as almonds," he said.

"But we really don't want that."

He said the industry would be working through what options are available, such as working holiday makers still in the country.

"We will look at what options we have but this year is unknown territory," he said.

Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister David Basham said the state government recognised the importance of seasonal workers to the agricultural sector and, with border restrictions still in place, understood the challenges in filling these positions.

"This is why we have launched the Seasonal Jobs SA campaign to help connect those looking for work with seasonal jobs available across the state," he said.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact across many industries and the government has put out a call to arms to South Australians to fill jobs in agriculture to help our farmers put their healthy produce on tables around Australia.

"The campaign's tagline is 'if you need jobs, we need you' and we want locals who might be looking for work to give these seasonal jobs a go.

"We will continue to work with industry to assess their needs but I would encourage all employers needing workers to utilise the Seasonal Jobs SA website and employ locals first."