Crunch time for orchardists

RIPE: Bostock New Zealand is gearing up for a "monumental" apple harvest with help from workers like Barnabas Igini, left, an RSE worker, and local Steven Whatarau. PHOTO/ WARREN BUCKLAND

Volumes are up, quality is excellent and the fruit is looking and tasting superb, says Hawke's Bay orchardist John Bostock.

"We've just got to get it harvested."

Several weeks ago when they were just 20 days out from the start of the harvest, Bostock New Zealand was short by 140 workers.

Owner John Bostock said they were feeling more comfortable now.

They had employed a large number of Kiwi workers thanks to a lot of help from Work and Income, who had been "fantastic".

Currently Kiwis made up half of Bostock's casual workers, and the other half were Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers.

"Whether it's enough we don't know," Mr Bostock said. "I expect it will be tight and we will possibly be short but it's early days."

To add to the pressure, Mr Bostock said the royal gala harvest had also been delayed.
"It's been slow so it's going to come with a monumental rush.

"It's going to be an enormous job in the next 15 days."

He said there might be a pinch when the peak of the royal gala harvest arrived, and the workers began to tire.

Mr Bostock admitted the potential future shortage of labour made him nervous.

"Part of the push is that volumes are higher than anticipated," he said. "The crunch time will come in April when we're harvesting braeburns, fujis and granny smiths."

When asked how he thought other orchardists were faring, he said: "I would think everyone is in the same boat. There's been a lot of growth in the business and in the future we will need more."

He said the Kiwi workers they had taken on were under pressure, but Bostock NZ was going to give them the support where they could with training and transport.
"New Zealanders come first for us", he said. "We're looking for full-time workers to put into training courses."

The Government allowed an extra 300 RSE workers into Hawke's Bay this year following an apple crop forecast to be 5 per cent larger.

They allowed more than 3000 RSE workers into the region last year, when some growers were forced to leave apples unpicked due to labour shortages.

If you're keen to work, John Bostock says to go to bostock.nz