Seeka kiwifruit picking

Projected growth within New Zealand’s kiwifruit industry will create over 5,000 additional full time and seasonal employment positions, according to New Zealand Kiwifruit.

Figures released by the industry body suggest that the sector’s workforce will increase by 4,740 seasonal staff and 420 full-time staff by 2019. The industry currently has around 9,800 permanent employees and over 8,500 seasonal employees. Around 1500 workers are employed as part of the Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme, which predominantly draws candidates from the nearby Pacific Islands.

Job seekers in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand’s key kiwifruit production hub, have already benefited from the increase in productivity, according to Mike Bryant, the region’s commissioner for Work and Income New Zealand. Bryant told the Bay of Plenty Times that 251 people have moved off welfare benefits in the Bay of Plenty since late May to take-up seasonal work, 700 more than last year. Bryant added that many of these workers would stay on with orchards once picking programmes have concluded later this month.

“Harvesting and pruning and those types of jobs have more lengthy periods of work,” Bryant explained. “You can actually get up to 46 weeks, which is almost fulltime, where the packhouses are three months or less.”