Labour shortage: berries set to rot

LABOUR SHORTAGE:

BERRIES SET TO ROT

Words by Rose Mannering

Dianne Charlton with berries left on the vine

Small block holders and gate sales operators in Hawke’s Bay have been put under severe pressure, Tollemache Road berry grower Dianne Charlton believes.

She and her husband Matthew have been growing boysenberries and then raspberries for 38 years just south of Hastings at their business The Berry Farm. She believes an inability to get workers this season due to labour shortages is placing the whole berry industry in jeopardy. First it was Perry’s Berrys strawberry producers in Auckland, then others have quietly followed, just closing their gates. “I believe the long-term future of the farm shop is threatened,” she says. Being just on the outskirts of Hastings has meant the Charltons have had few problems in the past attracting locals, students and backpackers to help with the berry harvest. “We were okay up until Christmas, harvesting our boysenberries,” she says. But as students have gone back to schools and universities, the labour market tightened. This was compounded by the start of the apple harvest in February with even her long-term “retired ladies” moving into roles in apple packhouses because they could get longer hours. “I don’t begrudge this, I encouraged them to go, because they were short too,” she says. Picking berries is not well suited to women with children at school; the berries are best picked early in the morning before the sun heats them and they begin to soften. The labour shortage has also meant some employees felt as if they could get away with more, knowing their jobs were secure because producers were desperate. Dianne disagrees that poor pay is contributing to people not staying long enough to get the crop picked. “If people are not used to working outside, they struggle to maintain this work, day in day out, she says. That, combined with the early starts, had often resulted in workers not even making it to pay-day before quitting. Other workers were concerned if they earned too much they would lose their Working For Families Ministry of Social Development benefits. In the peak of the raspberry season the Charltons were by-passing crop and only picking once every seven days, instead of the normal rotation of three days for their autumn raspberry crop, leaving berries to rot on the vine. “We needed eight pickers in the peak of the season, but we were lucky if we got three,” she says.

Dianne believes it is easy for people to not take a family business such as theirs seriously. “But we take a great deal of pride getting our fruit from the paddock to our shop; we have regular customers who come and seek out our berries.”

“We have never had a labour problem here before; we have never used RSEs (Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme workers), but we do have backpackers who usually just walk down the driveway looking for work.” Another feature of the season has been a very high turnover, with a lot of time spent interviewing, inducting and training workers who then don’t stay. “I am not going to give up; I am optimistic solutions will be found before next season.”

The one loyal worker who has remained the whole season, Rhonda Hapi-Smith, had made a switch from managing RSE workers to the seasonal raspberry picking role. Rhonda, who lives nearby, says Dianne and Matthew have always been community minded and helped out where needed. She feels a sense of loyalty to the Charltons to ensure that as much of their crop is harvested as possible. Rhonda knows how much is riding on getting the crop picked and packed for the gate sale shop. Seeing fruit rotting on the vine is heartbreaking.

Dianne Charlton and Rhonda Hapi-Smith are proud of their produce

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Greenhouse Film

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