Dairy farm workers stuck abroad

Dairy farmers waiting on the return of highly skilled foreign farm workers ahead of the calving season still don’t know if they will be allowed to enter New Zealand.

Many workers from places like the Philippines, India and South America who had returned home for holidays, have been locked out by border restrictions.

The ‘‘ill-timed holiday makers’’ were people on active visas and had been working in New Zealand for some time already, said The Regions managing director and licensed immigration adviser Ben De’ath.

De’ath said he had clients awaiting the return of about 100 workers in this category, who had between one and 11 years’ farming experience in New Zealand. Some of them were residence visa holders, he said.

‘‘It is a very harsh interpenetration that they do not qualify for re-entering New Zealand with the resident visa holders,’’ he said.

De’ath wanted to see all affected workers to have the chance to be on flights prior to calving season, which begins in about four weeks, as quarantine requirements would affect when they could begin work again.

Waikato dairy farmer Marcus Graham said he was waiting for his Filipino assistant manager Vicente to return.

His absence had put the farm in a worrying position ahead of calving when stock numbers on his 480-cow herd would double. Graham’s plan B was to bring his retired parents back onto the farm, which was ‘‘not ideal’’.

‘‘It’s made worse by the fact of the uncertainty. I’m hoping he’s going to get back in time,’’ he said.

Vicente wasn’t only highly skilled, he knew the farm. Even if Graham could find a replacement, calving season was not the best time to be training workers, he said.

Federated

Farmers dairy chair Chris Lewis said while dairy farmers could probably get Kiwis to fill the lower-skilled farm assistant roles, finding people with qualifications to run farms was much harder.

Lewis had been lucky on his own farm with his key worker making it back from overseas within days of the border closing.

‘‘We urgently need Kiwis in the farm assistant roles to work their way up but that is going to take many years. You need experience and hours under your belt,’’ he said.