On the Australian Ag Podcast, Grove Juice general manager Greg Quinn stated there needed to be more focus around increasing skilled labour. Australia’s largest Valencia orange grower says domestic labour schemes are not addressing the “massive” shortage of workers, particularly in the horticultural sector.
“Certainly the Pacific Island scheme is good and it’s working very well for us, but it’s also how we can unlock a lot of that Asian skilled labour, particularly in engineering and manufacturing, not just for farms but for businesses,” Quinn said. He added that the industry was also reassessing its reliance on backpacker workers, especially after recent ‘same job, same pay’ minimum wage changes.
“But I think we’re probably a bit too exposed to the backpackers particularly in horticulture and across the workforce,” he said. “Since the minimum wage has come in, it’s probably making us less productive on farms, because effectively, you’re doing top up of those payments because the backpackers aren’t efficient or skilled to work properly. Some of them are good, but largely, there is exposure there. It increases your supervisory costs and it increases work, health and safety issues as well.”
Source: weeklytimesnow.com.au