Apple orchardists are calling on the Government to start putting together a plan to allow Pacific Island workers to return later in the year.

Due to a shortage of labour, thousands of tonnes of fruit has been left on trees and the apple industry alone is predicting losses of more than $600 million to provincial economies, with national crop forecasts 14% down on last year.

Hawke’s Bay orchardist and exporter Bruce Mitchell, whose family has been growing fruit for more than 50 years, left six blocks of Royal Gala apples on the trees because he couldn’t get anyone to harvest them.

He says it was devastating to see the best gala apples he has ever grown rot on the ground because there was no one to pick them.

“I was desperate and did everything I could to find people to harvest the apples but on the day we started I was expecting 20 pickers and only two people turned up, so we physically couldn’t pick 40% of the gala crop,” Mitchell said.

“We can’t continue to spend money on keeping our business alive without a guarantee of labour in the future. It’s just not possible.”

John Bostock, owner of Bostock New Zealand, the country’s largest organic apple grower and exporter, says the current season has been a disaster for apple growers and they can’t be expected to go through another like it next year.

“Apple prospects for this season are done. The dye has been cast,” Bostock said.

“No matter how hard we’ve tried, we have struggled to recruit New Zealanders to our cropping fields, orchards and packhouses. We cannot continue like this.

“We cannot get through another season without certainty of labour.”

He says apple growers urgently need the Government to announce a plan that will allow the return of RSE (Recognised Seasonal Employer) workers from covid-free Pacific Island countries.

“There are not enough New Zealanders available for the work,” he said. 

“We’ve created tens of thousands of permanent full-time jobs through the RSE scheme and without seasonal workers the fabric of our communities is at risk.

“We cannot continue to operate on a knife edge.”

Although he fears that there will not be enough workers to do essential winter orchard maintenance, he’s more concerned about having experienced staff available to cope when thinning requirements kick in around October.

NZ Apples and Pears chief executive Alan Pollard says the current harvest is already at its peak and too late to bring in more workers now, so the focus now is on next season.

“We estimate that we need at least 21 weeks from a Government decision to the time that we need the workers to be deployed, so there is real urgency to find a workable solution,” Pollard said.

He is already aware of leases not being renewed, blocks being pulled out and not being replaced, and new tree orders being cancelled.

“Growers need certainty to continue with their investments. They have to make hard commercial decisions,” he said.

Pollard says many orchardists are under a lot of stress, worried not just for their own businesses but also for their staff, although he acknowledged the work that MPI and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor have done through the wellbeing support package for fruit growers that was rolled out last month.

He has also been pleased that the Government, in particular Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi, has shown a willingness to engage with the industry over its difficulties, and is cautiously optimistic something can be worked out in time to bring in RSE workers from covid-free Pacific Island countries.

However, any system designed to bring those workers in needs to recognise the risks associated with them staying at MIQ facilities, where the likelihood of travellers with covid-19 will be higher.

Pollard says it makes sense for that to be avoided.

Teviot Valley apple orchardist Peter Vernon says the Central Otago situation is similar to Hawke’s Bay.

He says orchardists there are employing every Kiwi they can find and there are some good ones around, but there’s just not enough.

Orchardists are under pressure, but Vernon says there’s a whole workforce in the Pacific Islands who rely on that work to support their families and are crying out to be able to come back.

He says the importance of that work and how it supports families in the Pacific Islands is one of the messages that is being missed.

Vernon normally employs RSE workers from Vanuatu, who complement the locals and backpackers, who are also not available.

“They really want the work and they want to come here,” Vernon said.

“They think it’s their orchard, they take real pride in what they do.”

Vernon knows his usual RSE employees are desperate to return and he says he would be typical of others who employ RSE workers.

“Those workers are being overlooked,” he said.

He can’t fathom the logic behind not allowing workers into NZ from countries that don’t have covid when there are whole sectors suffering because of a shortage of staff who want and can do the work.