Planning for the coming season

Kate Hellstrom : Summerfruit NZ chief executive

Now that spring is well and truly making its presence felt, summerfruit growers are preparing for the coming season. The chief concern remains labour and rightfully so. While New Zealand’s borders are more open than they were at this time last year, the whole world is in the market for labour. That’s why I think it is a very positive move for the government – via Opportunity Grows Here – to be expanding its promotion of opportunities in horticulture, for people travelling to New Zealand in the coming months. Please remember that both Opportunity Grows Here and Handpicked Crew direct all job seeker traffic to Pick NZ so get your ads up on Pick NZ now! Handpicked Crew activity is also well underway. Social media pages will continue to promote seasonal jobs within the regions. If you have a social media page, head along to Handpicked Crew and follow us. Please also send tracey.mansfield@summerfruitnz.co.nz any posts you have created on your platforms, so that we can share them on our page.

Dialogue with the government continues around the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme. We are keen to see the scheme expanded, because it benefits the Pacific particularly in the post-Covid-19 environment, and because of how the scheme has enabled our industry to grow and provide thousands of New Zealanders with permanent roles. The government’s substantive review of the RSE scheme is scheduled for 2023. At the moment, the focus is on the cap for the coming season. However, that said, the short-term and long-term futures of the scheme are interlinked.

Please ensure you have in your diaries Summerfruit NZ’s pre-season meeting, which will be held in Alexandra on Wednesday 3 November 2022. Please keep an eye on our Prunings newsletter for more details.