The season is underway
While the fruit quality is generally looking good, volumes are lower than expected due to some early season rain damage. We’re hearing from Central Otago growers that the labour shortage is causing concern. Some people aren’t always turning up and there may be a smaller labour pool as people have applied to multiple employers. There’s also not enough job-seeker enquiries for this stage of the season. Summerfruit NZ will do what we can to support you during this time.
Tracey Mansfield moderates a private Facebook group for Central Otago growers and vineyards to enable collaboration and sharing of information including staff availability. If you haven’t joined already, please do so as soon as possible here.
Covid-19 preparedness
Now that New Zealand has moved to the traffic-light system, it’s more important than ever to be well-prepared in case Covid-19 arrives in our communities. Growers and packhouses can access a library of Covid protocols and other information in the Summerfruit NZ Portal, go to ‘Main Menu/Covid’. Many thanks to NZAPI for sharing their Covid protocols with the summerfruit sector – we really appreciate this support.
These protocols are intended to help keep your workplaces safe and to limit any disruption to the harvest. If correctly followed, the protocols can help reduce the risk of active Covid cases in workplaces, and help with the swift identification and isolation of any active Covid cases should they occur. If you have any questions about your Covid preparedness, please contact Summerfruit NZ.
Meetings with Ministers
Since joining Summerfruit NZ in April, I have attended 16 meetings with Minister of Immigration, Kris Faafoi, occasional also Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, and the horticulture/viticulture industry collective. The industry collective has used these meetings to advocate on your behalf on the settings for the RSE scheme, Working Holiday visas and other visa holder groups. We have described the efforts employers are putting into making jobs more attractive to New Zealanders by improving conditions and removing barriers to participate. We’ve worked closely with Ministers and government officials on these issues throughout the year.
Successes to this collaborative approach include the opening up of the RSE scheme to quarantine-free travel and the early extension of Working Holiday visas, which helped ensure the summerfruit sector could employ visa holders for the harvest season. The industry collective believes that New Zealand communities are more supportive than ever of our RSE workers and the scheme, knowing that any Covid-19 risks are well managed, and that RSE workers are helping both New Zealand and their own economies at home.
Christmas / New Year arrangements for the SNZ team
It’s been a long year for all of us, and the Summerfruit NZ team will be taking well-deserved breaks during the summer holiday period. However, we’re still here to help and to support you during your harvest season. We will closely monitor our phone-calls and emails, so please don’t hesitate to contact me or one of the team if you need any support from us during the holiday period. View SNZ Christmas contacts here.
And finally, I wanted to thank everyone for your warm welcome and generosity with your time and knowledge since I started in my role as Chief Executive of Summerfruit NZ. I’ve enjoyed meeting you at grower events, at our conference held early this year in Napier and visiting many of you at your orchards and packhouses. I’ve been impressed by the passion you all have for the summerfruit sector, and I look forward to advocating for you and supporting the work you do in 2022.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very successful harvest!