Season's first kiwifruit China bound
Zespri's first charter shipment of the 2024 New Zealand kiwifruit season is on its way to Shanghai.
RSE workers from Malaysia unable to leave their country because of a coronavirus lockdown there has led to a labour shortage for Seeka.
The horticulture business is looking for 300 local people across their kiwifruit orchard and post-harvest operations in Bay of Plenty, Coromandel and Northland.
Seeka chief executive, Michael Franks says the usual flow of people to work for them in their eight facilities across the North Island has been impacted.
“The number of backpackers through our doors is low, and a significant portion of our experienced Recognised Seasonal Employee (RSE) scheme employees have been restricted from departing their country,” he says.
Franks outlined that 135 RSE workers scheduled from Malaysia had been restricted by their Government closing its borders for both inbound and outbound travellers. The New Zealand Government had allowed these vacancies to be filled with workers from the Pacific Islands. However, Seeka is still 300 workers short.
“While we look to employ New Zealanders first and foremost, we also need to find other sources of workers such as backpackers and those from the RSE scheme as the harvesting and packing window of kiwifruit is relatively short,” Franks says.
“To date around 5% of crop Seeka handles has been processed, for the moment we have coped – however in about three weeks we will hit peak flow and need far more numbers of people.
Each year Seeka needs 3,000 seasonal workers. Seasonal jobs start in March and finish around mid-June.
South Waikato farm manager Ben Purua’s amazing transformation from gang life to milking cows was rewarded with the Ahuwhenua Young Maori Farmer award last night.
Bankers have been making record profits in the last few years, but those aren’t the only records they’ve been breaking, says Federated Farmers vice president Richard McIntyre.
The 2023-24 season has been a roller coaster ride for Waikato dairy farmers, according to Federated Farmers dairy section chair, Mathew Zonderop.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) director general Ray Smith says job cuts announced this morning will not impact the way the Ministry is organised or merge business units.
Scales Corporation is acquiring a number of orchard assets from Bostock Group.
Family and solidarity shone through at the 75 years of Ferdon sale in Otorohanga last month.
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