Meat industry welcomes labour deal

A sector agreement should go a long way to addressing the significant labour shortages in New Zealand’s meat processing sector, says the Meat Industry Association (MIA).

The Government’s new sector agreement with the industry includes access to migrant workers for entrylevel red meat processing roles at $24 per hour with a cap on the number of visas. This will be replaced with a Pacific programme from 2024.

Migrants taking up these places will get seven-month visas and the wage threshold will be updated each year to reflect changes in the median wage to maintain its relative value.

“Labour shortages have been a significant issue for the meat processing sector for some time so this agreement is a welcome boost to our own domestic recruitment efforts,” says Sirma Karapeeva, chief executive of the MIA.

“Without sufficient employees, processors cannot run plants to the desired capacity, fully process all products and capture the maximum value.

“For example, the shortage of skilled knife people means that a reduced number of cuts can be prepared for the high value chilled market and the product is exported as frozen at a lower value. Byproducts are also sent to rendering instead of further processing.

“This deprives processors and farmers of revenue but also rural communities and the New Zealand economy of income.”