By Renee Wood
Farmers are facing yet another summer harvest with a labour shortage as the Covid-19 pandemic still causes issues for international seasonal workers.
Yarra Valley Agriculture’s Kylie Ammerlaan said in the past mostly backpackers have serviced the Yarra Valley.
“At the moment we’re quite limited by the fact that we don’t have those people waiting around the Valley anymore,” Ms Ammerlaan said.
Yarra Valley Cherries is one of many producers who have relied on backpackers but Packing Shed Manager Robyn Hall said they’ve heard from very little in the past two years.
“We normally have a lot of backpackers contacting us mid year in the hope of finding themselves a farm job for the harvest season, but these last two years I have been very lucky to have maybe a couple of backpackers make contact with us,” Ms Hall said.
And for those still in the country, Victoria hasn’t been the most ideal place to visit.
“They’ve been unable to make it to Victoria before the harvest time, and then they run the risk if they’re in Victoria for the harvest, of trying to get back out to follow the harvest trail up the East Cost.”
Last season there was some crop losses reported in the area to Yarra Valley Agriculture due to not enough seasonal workers to pick the produce.
Yarra Valley Cherries thankfully secured picking contractors but this upcoming season is one they will need all hands on deck for with a harvest expected of around 100 tonnes.
“It’s not very often we go over a 100 tonnes, so I would still like to have a few more names of people who are looking for work and essentially who can work most days of the week is pretty important for us.”
Ms Ammerlaan said the industry is trying to lure in local workers to help fill hundreds of positions ahead of the summer harvest.
“They may be students, they may be people who are unemployed, lost their job during Covid, or looking for a change, or they want to earn some extra money for the season coming up to Christmas,” Ms Ammerlaan said.
“There’s lots of lots of opportunities to come and make some decent money in the next couple of months.”
Yarra Valley Agriculture has created a dedicated online hub, funded by the state government, to draw in new workers.
The Yarra Valley Seasonal Work hub is an interactive web based platform with videos about seasonal work, information about harvests, and more importantly a jobs board where farmers can advertise jobs and prospective employees can apply.
“The other part of that website is a growers hub as well, so lots of information about employing people and lots of links and helpful templates that can help, a lot of Covid information and they can upload their jobs on there as well.”
Many jobs have been already advertised with a variety of producers, including Yarra Valley Cherries who is looking for a retail worker and packing shed manager.
“We’re looking for someone as a team leader in our packing shed, hopefully someone with a little bit of packing shed supervising experience to help us run our team in the shed, and a retail person in our retail shop where we sell our farm gate sales,” Ms Hall said.
“There’s a lot of different areas – the packing sheds quite a nice environment, it’s air conditioned, we make it a pleasant work experience, keep everybody focused, and it’s fast and exciting.”
For more information visit www.yarravalleyseasonalwork.com.au
