Covid widens hole in fish firms’ draining talent pool

It seems Covid-19 has brought to the surface deficiencies in the labour force behind an industry that was worth $2 billion in exports last year.

Nelson-based Sealord’s operations include deep-sea fishing and finfish aquaculture operations, employing more than 1000 people in New Zealand and 240 people overseas.

Sealord is equally owned by Ma¯ori through Moana New Zealand, and global seafood company, Japan’s Nippon Suisan Kaisha.

Chief executive Doug Paulin says the labour shortage in the industry is “a live issue” particularly in the seabased component of the business.

“It’s always been an issue for the deepwater fishing industry,” he says.

“As unemployment came down over the years prior to [Covid hitting], it meant that a greater number of fishing companies have had to resort to bringing skilled fishermen in from outside the country.

“And for the seafood industry, what has happened this year — not only have we been unable to attract enough people on to our vessels — we have not been able to attract enough people to land-based roles.

“So we have vacancies in our factories now as well as vacancies on our fishing boats,” he said.

Putting aside Covid, why is it so difficult to attract people?

“You can certainly earn a lot of money,” Paulin said. “You can work your way all the way up to the top, from a fishing vessel perspective.

“I think what’s happening now is that — and I’ve got teenage kids — the aspirations of younger New Zealanders are changing.

“Where they want to work and what they want to do will evolve over time. I’m not convinced that that’s a bad thing. But that means the pool that we are trying to draw on . . . is getting smaller at that bottom end where you are bringing people in to train and develop. “Covid-19 has just exacerbated it.” Paulin says deep sea fishing is not for everyone but it can be rewarding. A trainee can move from a deckhand to a fisher after the first year, earning $50,000 to $70,000 a year.

“Specifically, the industry is short of marine fishing engineers and factory engineers.

“And it’s just a matter of getting enough people . . . to train and to ensure that boats can go to sea.”

Covid has hit the company’s bottom line by $3m or $4m this (September) financial year from a labour perspective. He said there was potential to take another $2m to $4m financial hit yet before the year is out.

Normally the company hires about 400 seasonal workers and so far has only been able to get 180.

NZX-listed Sanford is also finding it challenging to get people.

“In the past it has been able to supplement its workforce with people working holidays which clearly took a dive on the back of Covid,” Sanford’s chief people officer Karen Duffy said.

“For us, the burning platform is the immigration restriction.

“A lot of highly skilled people are returning to New Zealand, so we were able to attract people in the highly skilled roles. But certainly at the front end . . . where we have needed to top up labour numbers with international people, that’s a big pain-point for us.”