Lachie McLeod, one of many students working at Halfords Orchard on Tollemache Rd, Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
Lachie McLeod, one of many students working at Halfords Orchard on Tollemache Rd, Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
An influx of students home for holidays has more than covered the hole in the cherry picking sector in Hawke's Bay left by a lack of RSE workers and backpackers.
With Covid-19 closing the borders to international workers, it was feared there would be a shortage of pickers inthe regions at peak Christmas harvest time.
However, Hastings-based cherry orchardist Simon Halford said an inflow of high school and returning university students has more than offset the loss of overseas workers.
Halford said his high pre-Christmas staffing level has been made up of students, extended family members and remaining RSE workers.
"We're lucky enough to still have access to some RSE staff that had not yet been able to return home from last season. But we've even had more inquiries than we have work for, largely from the students.
"But, we've had no approaches from any locals who may have been out of work following Covid restructuring."
The response from New Zealanders increased after a campaign between Summerfruit NZ and the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry for Primary Industries, as well as other industry organisations, councils and HortNZ.
The "Handpicked and Opportunity Grows Here" campaign aimed to raise awareness of the shortage in local pickers.
Summerfruit NZ chief executive Richard Palmer said the response in Hawke's Bay, Marlborough and Central Otago has been especially good.
"Many growers and packers have even received far more applications than they would normally expect at this time of year."
The usual cherry harvest season lasts about six weeks, straddling Christmas and New Year.
Kolopa Atiga working at Halfords Orchard packhouse in Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
Palmer said in previous harvests, students usually work through to late-January before international backpackers fill their roles.
"We need to make sure the incentives are there to keep people employed as long as the work is available. Keeping people on board for the full cherry crop and then the other summerfruit crops is a major concern."
Halford said they are covered for the cherry season, but the real crunch will come in the apple picking window in early February when the students return to university.
"We'll get through pre-Christmas with adequate staff, but the apple picking is where we're not going to have enough staff - no students and not likely to have access to the RSEs we've had pre-Christmas," he said.
"Administration wise and supervision wise, it's a lot more intensive than with an experienced team of RSEs. We still have uncertainty as to how many staff we will have in and there's significantly more man-management required."
The orchardist said the business will have to choose what crops to leave on the trees come harvest time, if staffing is an issue.
"Any marginal varieties are going to be unlikely to be able to justify the resource that has to go in to them," he said.
"The end result is going to be the lost wages for picking the fruit, lost income for the packhouse for packing it and therefore their wages too, as well as lost export income for that product being packed to go overseas."
