Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller is calling for the Government to urgently declare a seasonal worker shortage in the region.

But the Ministry of Social Development says it’s too early to declare a seasonal labour because the BOP kiwifruit picking season hasn’t began yet.

And New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated chief executive officer Nikki Johnson agrees, saying: “You can’t apply for a labour shortage until you have one”.

Todd says declaring a labour shortage now would allow for work visa applications to be fast-tracked as they were late in the 2018 season.

“Kiwifruit growers in the BOP are getting ready for another bumper harvest this season, but once again are struggling to find workers to get the fruit off the vine.

“The Government has the tools to fix the problem, but are failing to understand the urgency of the situation for orchardists who need more workers – not more working groups.

“Fruit growers were grateful that the Government lifted the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme cap last year, but that doesn’t go nearly far enough in a season some are calling a ‘perfect storm’ of big crops and a worker shortage.”

Todd says the Government has tried to kick this issue for touch by announcing a review of the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme sometime in 2019, while saying growers should do more to attract local workers.

“Growers say they have no problem with the job seekers referred by the MSD who stay beyond a handful of days, but there just aren’t enough of them.

“Seasonal fruit won’t wait for another round of consultation. Pressing problems need practical solutions or fruit will be left to rot on the vine.”

Regional Commissioner Mike Bryant says last year’s labour shortage in BOP was declared in May. “It is still early on in the BOP kiwifruit season,” says Mike.

“We’re continuing to talk with industry about their expected supply of labour, which we know can be hard to predict. Predictions will become clearer in the next few months as the harvest season approaches.”

Nikki says last season it did take four weeks after the shortage occurred for a declaration to be declared. “The process to getting from having a shortage to getting a declaration from government can be quite long.

“II’s not helpful if the process for declaring a labour shortage takes a long time as it can be too late to help with that season – which is what happened last year. But we’d prefer to be in a situation this year where our labour recruitment campaign works and we don’t have a shortage.”

Nikki says only two things come from a labour shortage declaration. The industry gets a lot of publicity, and those in NZ on a visitor visa can apply for a short-term working visa.

“The reality is that might get us a few hundred people but it isn’t going to get us the level of people we need to fill a shortage. So declaring a labour shortage in itself is not a solution to a labour shortage.

“The publicity we did get from the shortage declaration last year meant we got about 600 people that came into the industry. That told us people didn’t know jobs were available or weren’t specifically motivated to take these jobs.

“So what we’re doing now is taking the front-foot to get people signed up to those jobs now.”

Nikki says last year was the first time in recent years the labour declaration process had been used. “We learnt a lot from it and so I’m confident if we need to we could do things faster anyway.

In response to Todd’s statements, Nikki says: “It is our understanding that you can’t declare a labour shortage until you have a labour shortage and we will be closely monitoring the situation as we start harvest.”