YOUR INDUSTRY
Bruno with young feijoa plants under cover
Nursery innovations to solve labour crisis Waimea Nurseries near Nelson is gearing up for its busy winter period when it lifts trees for customers and it expects to be short of up to 30 seasonal staff. By Anne Hardie The nursery which supplies commercial growers around the country, usually employs about 200 staff through winter including up to 140 seasonal staff. But its development manager Bruno Simpson says the business is tracking to be chronically 15 people short and up to 30 this winter. That may mean the nursery’s lifting period for trees may go on longer, customers will have to wait longer before they can plant those trees and the next growing season may be delayed. He says the travel bubble with Australia may actually make the seasonal labour shortage in New Zealand even worse.
48
The ORCHARDIST : MAY 2021
“Personally I think the biggest risk is we will lose a lot of Kiwis.” Plus, he says seasonal workers on working holiday visas may decide to head to Australia, and the tourism industry here in New Zealand which is cranking up staff numbers again, is suddenly becoming more competitive for labour. At the same time, there isn’t a travel bubble with the islands for Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme workers to come and go. “The challenge for us is we don’t know what we are going to end up with,” he says. “The mitigating factor for us is our time is less critical (than harvesting fruit).”