WEKEEND MAGAZINE: Jodi Johnstone - Queen of the kiwis

Dealing with backpackers, childcare centres and foreign tourists who need to open bank accounts is all part harvesting this year's kiwifruit crop for one Bay woman. Jo-Marie Brown meets Jodi Johnstone, the woman responsible for finding the huge labour force required.
Until a few months ago, Jodi Johnstone had never set foot in a kiwifruit packhouse.
Now, she is the woman in charge of finding hundreds of seasonal workers to pick, sort and pack the Bay of Plenty's billion-dollar kiwifruit crop during this year's harvest.
"The time which you have to get the kiwifruit off the vines is limited, so it's absolutely crucial we have the people here to pick the fruit and pack it. Otherwise, people are going to lose money," Johnstone says.
As a kiwifruit novice, she's had a lot to learn since the role was devised in February.
Work and Income, together with Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated, have created her seasonal labour co-ordinator position because of the desperate need to attract more workers.
Last year, many packhouses had to run at just 80 per cent capacity because of a lack of staff.
And for the past six weeks, large, brightly coloured billboards have been popping up alongside State Highway 2 near Te Puke to alert passing motorists to the huge number of "employment opportunities" that exist.
A staggering 18,000 permanent and seasonal workers are needed to successfully harvest the Bay's kiwifruit crop every year. But hiring a huge number of people for just a short space of time was problematic, to say the least.
"Accommodation is a huge issue, as well as finding people in the first place because the country's unemployment rate is so low," Johnstone explains. "At the moment I've got at least 500 vacancies on my computer for packhouses and that's just the ones I know about.
"There'll be lots of other contractors out there, screaming for pickers that we haven't heard from yet."
Johnstone's calm exterior belies the pressure she is now under.
Sitting in her sparse office in the Te Puke Community Care Centre, she kicks off her shoes and recounts how she wound up working in an industry about which she previously knew little.
The 30-year-old (who gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Jorja, in late 2003) was born and raised in Rotorua.
Her long and varied CV includes skills like forklift driving, desk-top publishing, inventory, computer operation, timber sales, real estate administration and kitchen and bathroom production.
"A little bit of everything, eh? I never do the same job twice," she jokes.
And she is no stranger to learning curves.
At Kawerau's pulp and paper mill, she was tasked with overseeing no less than 104 separate training manuals on how to operate the plant's intricate machinery.
"It was my job to have my finger on the pulse as to where each manual was up to - whether they were still being written or illustrated or if they were ready for publishing.
"Because they were for the workers, they were extremely detailed, so I learned all the ins and outs of how to work the equipment too."
Stints working in Tauranga and Hamilton eventually led her back to Pukehina Beach where she has just bought a two-bedroom bach.
"I love it out there. I love going for walks on the beach and Jorja loves all the cows that are out the back of our house. She stands there and goes 'moo' at them."
The only contact Johnstone has ever had with kiwifruit before was when she worked for Wrightson Real Estate in Te Puke.
"We sold a lot of kiwifruit orchards so I got to learn a bit about it from the grower's perspective."
But after two months in her new job, she now has a whole new appreciation.
This year a new labour strategy has been developed to try and attract more workers to the industry. Qualifications approved by NZQA will soon be offered by Bay of Plenty Polytechnic to recognise people's skills in areas of kiwifruit orchard work such as pruning, picking, spraying, and thinning.
Work and Income is also being more flexible about altering visitor permits to allow backpackers and the like to participate.
"We get a lot of locals come back into it season after season, but backpackers are great because they can come in and do eight or 12 weeks' work and then carry on with their holiday."
Johnstone has been deliberately targeting overseas visitors by posting advertisements on backpacking websites and other kiwifruit internet links.
"They're attracting heaps of interest. This morning alone I've had nine or 10 emails from backpackers wanting to come to the Bay," she said.
"I've got one from a Taiwanese girl here who's in Canada at the moment and coming to New Zealand at the end of April to look for work. And then there's a German student coming down from Auckland looking for a picking job and accommodation."
Johnstone has also ensured bright green kiwifruit-coloured leaflets have been dropped in as many supermarkets, church halls, service stations and hostels as possible. They all urge potential workers to contact her for help with job vacancies, accommodation, childcare and transport.
"For travellers especially, I can tell them how to open a New Zealand bank account, how to get an IRD number and give them some information about the area.
"What I'm actually trying to do is act as a central point of contact where people can come and talk about labour issues in the industry."
One major issue that hasn't been openly talked about in the past was the shonky business practices in which some contractors indulge.
"There's a lot of scare tactics out there," Johnstone says. "In the past there's been instances were workers haven't been paid, and cases where contractors have confiscated a person's passport and threatened to dob them in to Immigration if they didn't accept certain working conditions."
Now that Work and Income was making it easier for visitors to work here legally, Johnstone hoped that side of the industry would be cleaned up for good.
On a personal note, the bubbly young mum says she's thrilled to be back in the workforce after 18 months maternity leave.
"I decided to put Jorja in daycare and this was actually the first job I applied for. It just sounded perfect to me.
"It's really challenging and because I have a lot of contact with people I find the work interesting.
"I had a 74-year-old give me a call a couple of weeks ago looking to get back into the workforce as a lab technician. He said if we wanted anyone older you'd have to go to the cemetery. He was such a dag."
While Johnstone's position was effectively a trial, she said similar co-ordinator roles had worked wonders in other fruit-picking areas such as Marlborough and Hawke's Bay.
"It's proved to be fantastic in those areas because it's making people's lives a lot easier."
As picking begins over this long Easter weekend, life will probably not seem easy for the next few months. But Johnstone seems to relish the challenge.
"I work really well under pressure and I've enjoyed looking around the packhouses.
"Some of the facilities they've got out there are fantastic."