YOUR INDUSTRY
RSE scheme workers
Horticulture generally relies on three sources of seasonal labour WHV holders
New Zealanders
Fit for a Better World has ambitious targets which aim to drive New Zealand’s post-Covid economic recovery
Industry in crisis In July 2020, the Prime Minister launched Fit for a Better World, a plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. In doing so, she noted that New Zealand’s post-Covid recovery will be led by the primary sector. Horticulture Chief Executives have said for some time that the horticulture sectors would be best placed, with supportive policy settings in place, to achieve this. By Alan Pollard : Chief Executive, New Zealand Apples and Pears
Indeed, despite an unprecedented lockdown from late March, many parts of the horticulture sector actually had their best year ever! The apple sector reacted swiftly to the changes required to operate as an essential business, re-engineering itself in the space of a couple of weeks. Although strict hygiene was nothing new for the industry, social distancing on orchard and in post-harvest facilities created challenges. Ultimately, we were successful in meeting this challenge, with our seasonal labour force living, travelling, and working in their bubbles. We exported over 400,000 metric tonnes of apples and pears for the first time, with an export value exceeding $900m (not far off our $1b target set in 2013). 48
The ORCHARDIST : APRIL 2021
From incredible results to a catastrophic situation So how could we go from this incredible result in the face of adversity, buffering the destruction being seen in other parts of the economy, to the catastrophe unfolding in our sector as I write this? It became clear very early on that with borders closed, our access to a reliable seasonal workforce would be constrained. The Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme is one of the key reasons that the New Zealand apple industry has become consistently the world’s most competitive apple industry (independently assessed by Belrose Group in the United States by comparing 33 apple producing countries).
