YOUR INDUSTRY
KIWIFRUIT UPDATE
Co-operation and strong relationships key to coping with Covid-19
Nikki Johnson, Chief Executive of New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc.
By Elaine Fisher Surviving ‘curve balls’ in the past helped the kiwifruit industry cope well with the challenges of Covid-19 restrictions during the recent harvest, says Nikki Johnson, chief executive of New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc. “This industry has been recognised for coming together in times of trouble, and during Covid-19 collaboration and co-operation between growers, contractors and the post-harvest sector meant sharing what worked. Everyone understood that we would get there by working together.” And get there the industry did, with no cases of Covid-19 among workers on orchards or in packhouses, and all the fruit picked and packed. “The industry is not out of the woods yet, with a lot of fruit still to sell. However, kiwifruit is a natural product with a very high Vitamin C content which consumers are seeking, so as an industry, that’s a good place to be,” says Nikki. Being declared an essential industry meant the kiwifruit harvest could go ahead; “but in Level 4 under what basis we could continue to work and the feasibility of the rules had to be worked out. It all happened quickly, and the rules changed frequently. “The fact that we had established a good relationship with the Ministry for Primary Industries during ‘peacetime’ (pre-Covid) was an advantage.” As a food industry, kiwifruit already had hygiene requirements and contract tracing in place. “It was social distancing that caused the most drama and it did slow things down initially. Orchardists and contractors had to change how they picked, and some needed more infrastructure in place.
and staff working from home almost round the clock to keep up the information gathering and transfer. “We anticipated a lot of the questions growers would have especially around protocols, so had a FAQ facility on the website. Every time new questions arose, we would update the website and the traffic went through the roof. The Zespri call centre experienced similar high traffic volumes.” A partnership between NZKGI and Zespri was formed to support the industry in finding workers as well as helping people and businesses affected by Covid-19.
This is about not only responding to change, but also about leading through change,” says Nikki The Labour Co-ordination Centre had companies representing around 700 people and over 400 individuals registered, many from tourism, hospitality, forestry and construction. From April 6, more than 1,000 people registered with the centre, and each week those people were emailed with details of between 200 and 550 vacant positions with contractors and post-harvest companies.
“There were also some improvements to be made regarding hygiene and facilities as workers were required to wash their hands at least eight times a day, including when they arrived on site and before and after every break.”
NZKGI’s Labour Attraction Strategy was about to be launched, targeted at students and retirees, just as Covid-19 requirements came into place, including the requirement that over 70-year-olds had to self-isolate. “We had to change focus and switched to New Zealanders who were recently displaced. We contacted the tourism and hospitality industries in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Rotorua to give people the opportunity to work within the kiwifruit industry.”
With protocols changing between different Covid-19 levels, questions from growers increased, resulting in traffic on the NZKGI website rocketing up during April,
The initiative was successful, but Nikki says there was still a significant turnover in staff. “The wage subsidy had an impact, with some people opting to take the subsidy and not work.
30
The ORCHARDIST : AUGUST 2020
