Seasonal workers in New Zealand will be offered work permit renewals in a bid to head off a labour shortfall for the 2007 harvest of horticulture crops such as apples and kiwifruit.
The NZ immigration department is offering the permit renewals of up to nine months to help keep an increasingly experienced pool of workers available to the industry.
New workers will still be issued with permits valid for up to six months, but they will be able to extend them for nine months under the scheme. The changes were first introduced as a temporary measure last year, but will remain operational for the upcoming season.
HortNZ business manager Chris Ward told the NZ press he was pleased with the decision. “Growers now say that the lack of suitable labour for the timely picking of crops is their number one problem,” he said.
Meanwhile, producers are being told to brace themselves for a difficult spring and summer as lower than normal rainfall in the east of the country and maybe even the Bay of Plenty is a possibility, with weather pundits warning that an El Niño effect is imminent.
Michael Butcher at Pipfruit NZ said that it is just “business as usual” for apple growers as the east is always drier than the west due to the predominant westerly airflow over the country.
“Eastern seaboard growers expect this and have irrigation in place,” said Butcher. “Irrigation water use is controlled by our regional authorities so there is no wastage of this valuable resource.
"Unless we have a significantly more severe drought than we usually get over summer there will be no adverse effect on tree crops.”
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