YOUR INDUSTRY
Positive images of people enjoying their work in kiwifruit orchards are part of the NZKGI labour attraction strategy
2022 harvest not time to be a passive grower The 2022 harvest is shaping up to be the most challenging the industry has faced in the Covid-19 era – and it’s no time to be a passive grower, says Colin Bond, chief executive of New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc (NZKGI). Elaine Fisher “We have a history of picking every fruit and want to do that again this year, but it will be a challenge. The first step for growers is to be aware of the challenges and carry out forward planning. This is not the year to be a passive grower.
workforce has now moved on. The 2022 harvest is likely to be the most challenging; one more hill to climb before the borders fully open. Hopefully by 2023 things will be back to normal.”
“This is the year to help on orchard and actively find others to come and help. We have almost 3,000 growers, if they find two people each, we should have the numbers.”
Zespri is forecasting yet another record crop, 190 million trays, compared to 177 million trays last season. The harvest began in late February with the first of an estimated 240,000 trays of Zespri RubyRed fruit harvested in Te Puke; a modest forerunner to the height of the harvest when 2 million trays of Zespri SunGold fruit will be picked each day. “That’s the mountain we have to climb.”
Predictions are for a shortfall of around 6,500 workers, largely because backpackers, who have traditionally accounted for around 25 percent of the labour force, aren’t in the country. Absenteeism due to Covid-19 could make the number higher. “In 2020, as an essential industry we were able to employ people who had lost their jobs in other sectors, but that 38
The ORCHARDIST : APRIL 2022
The kiwifruit industry is a great New Zealand growth story and Colin says the problems it faces are a product of its own success.
