But 2000 may not be enough

News of 2000 Pacific fruit pickers set to help out the country’s horticulture and wine industries has been tentatively welcomed by the kiwifruit industry.

It’s a “great start” at filling the 14,500 needed in the industry, however the cost of paying for workers’ quarantine is “substantial”.

Local MP Todd Muller has also called the number “pitiful” and says the Government is “disconnected from the reality” of what’s happening in the industry.

Yesterday, the Government announced 2000 workers from the Pacific would come to New Zealand early next year to pick fruit for the horticulture and wine industries.

The deal was announced by Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi and alongside Argiculture Minister Damien O’connor.

The arrival of the RSE workers was hoped to cover a hole in the labour force and avert what many growers have been calling a crisis.

Trevelyan’s Pack and Cool human resource manager Jodi Johnstone said they hoped the kiwifruit industry would benefit from a large proportion of the workers because they were desperately needed.

“The border closed as our teams were starting to come in last year, where the apple industry, for example, already had their teams here and have retained greater numbers of these teams.”

She said they were waiting to see how the allocation process would work, and they “will certainly be pushing for our share of the 2000”.

“While the costs are significant and this wasn’t what we had hoped to hear, our experienced RSES are critical to the success of our business,” she said. “We need to figure out how to make it work.”

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc chief executive Nikki Johnson said 2000 workers was a “great start” given limited quarantine spaces, and the industry was in talks over other ways to get them in.

This included discussions with the Government on industrymanaged quarantine facilities and the potential for a Pacific bubble.

She said the costs of bringing workers in through managed isolation were “substantial” and em