A group of national gardeners is urging Victoria and other states to expand neutral resources to help Pacific island workers grow food in Australia.
He said increasing the number of workers from the Pacific Islands and increasing Australia’s quarantine capacity were crucial to ensure that Australian vegetable and potato producers had the workers they needed to harvest their produce.
Following the example of Ernest and Young Modeling from ASVVG, Australia’s largest vegetable and potato industry, the industry is facing severe labor shortages of up to 24,000 for the next major harvest season.
Step Two from Current horticultural labor demand and manpower research, According to Hort Innovation Mission, by 2022, the maximum vacancy will be between 11,000 and 24,000 workers.
According to Awswig, state and federal government support to increase the number of people coming from the Pacific islands to come and work on Australia’s fruit and vegetable farms is essential to enable the industry to have the manpower needed to harvest, pack and distribute new produce.
Since the resumption of the current labor program in July last year, the industry has already brought in more than 10,000 workers, and the prime minister’s commitment is to bring in another 12,500 workers by next Friday, according to AUSVEG Tyson Cattle.
Quarantine capacity and costs remain a major challenge for the industry, with some farmers having to pay more than $ 3,000 to complete their own isolation before starting work.
“Asuvig continues to work with the federal government and support initiatives such as domestic segregation to help reduce both health risks and costs,” he said.
“Despite this opportunity, it is unfortunate that only South Australia has chosen to discuss local neutrality options.
As an industry, we will continue to urge governments to look at ways to increase their isolation potential and to look at all possible options for the upcoming harvest and potato and potato sectors.