Australia landscape

After almost two months of delays, Australia’s seasonal guest worker scheme will bring its first Pacific Island workers to the country by the end of the month, reported the ABC.

Workers were scheduled to arrive in December, and critics say they now come too late for the picking season.

The government said the new scheme had to be done right the first time.

Meanwhile, vegetable growers have been warned by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics profits will fall on the back of lower prices and higher costs.

Vegetable farm incomes rose 51 per cent in 2006/07.