Farmers going bananas as staff shortage bites

FRUIT and vegetable prices will soar amid a looming supply crisis fuelled by a critical shortage of workers available to harvest fresh produce.

Farmers are warning that $6 iceberg lettuces are only the start of the supermarket costof-living woes for Australians, with seasonal staples like cucumbers, berries and tomatoes also likely to become more expensive.

Growers are calling on the Albanese government to fast track visas for all types of farming work, as well as maintain the new Agriculture Visa introduced by the Coalition.

Labor plans to cut the new Agriculture Visa and instead rely on expanding the Pacific Labour Scheme to meet the demand.

AusVeg spokesman Tyson Cattle said growers were only planting about 60 to 70 per cent of what they actually had capacity to grow, due to the lack of workers to help out with the harvest.

“We need to broaden out the scope of finding reliable workforce,” he said.

“People ask when will prices go back to normal … the reality is, they’re not going to, based on cost of production pressures.”

Banana and avocado grower Paul Shoker said he was struggling to find workers to harvest his crops at his Coffs Harbour farm.

“Pre-Covid we had people coming to us looking for work but now I’m going to other farmers to actively find any available workers,” Mr Shoker said.

He said on top of worker shortages, higher fuel, fertiliser and chemical prices were pushing up the cost of production.

“For example cucumbers are $12.90 a kilo when they should be half that at the moment,” he said.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said that there was significant supply pressure on the system fuelled by the worker shortage, with only about 30,000 backpackers currently in Australia, compared to the usual 150,000 before the pandemic.

“About a third of backpackers used to do farm work, so that’s a significant decrease in labour,” he said.

Mr Littleproud said the 50,000 people in Australia under the Pacific Labour Scheme was not enough.

“This constraint on supply is directly impacting inflation,” he said.

“People will have to pay more at the supermarket checkout.”

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said workforce was the “number one issue” raised with him in the past month.

“David Littleproud spent years promising farmers big things with his ag visa proposal, but it didn’t deliver a single farm worker,” Mr Watt said.

“Our farmers need access to workers and we’re working hard to help.

“There’s no single solution to meeting workforce needs, but it begins with training Australians for careers in the industry.”

Mr Watt said Labor was committed to expand the Pacific Labour Scheme. “We think that will go a long way to meeting the workforce needs,” he said.