Yummy Fruit Company chief executive Paul Paynter. Photo / RNZ, Reece Baker
By Anneke Smith of RNZ
An orchardist says the horticulture industry is not crying out for workers, as the Prime Minister urges young people to look for work in the sector.
From next November, the Government will means-test an 18 or 19-year-old’s before they can access a Jobseeker benefit.
Christopher Luxon has encouraged jobseekers to look to horticulture for work, telling Morning Report the sector is “crying out” for young people.
“If you go outside of Wellington, to Hawke’s Bay or go to the South Island... The primary industries, for example in horticulture [and] in our growing industries, they are crying out for young people to come and join those sectors and those jobs,” he said.
Yummy Fruit Company chief executive Paul Paynter, who grows apples and stone fruit in Hawke’s Bay, said the industry wasn’t short-staffed right now.
“We’re not crying out for staff at the moment. In a few weeks we will start taking on a small number [of workers] for stone fruit thinning and that’ll build through the apple thinning and it’ll build through the harvest season.
“So we will take on people but they’re not permanent year-round jobs. They are seasonal positions.”
Paynter said the fruit business ebbed and flowed, with about 350 employees on the books now that would peak at around 680 in March.
“Spring is busy. We’re certainly pretty busy but we don’t have a lot of seasonal jobs. So until we start thinning of stone fruit in a couple of weeks, and then apples at the beginning of December, we won’t be employing a lot of seasonal staff.”
Michael Franks, chief executive of the country’s largest kiwifruit grower, Seeka, said there was actually a “lull” in the employment cycle for his business.
“Right at the moment in the kiwifruit cycle, we’re nearing the end of shipping... so the work in our pack houses are slowing down because we’ve got no fruit left.
“We are continuing to pack avocados and we’re packing citrus. The volumes in those categories are low, but steady, but there’s not a big employment factor.”
That would change come picking season, he said.
“There’s always work for local labour. We try and employ local labour first, before RSEs and backpackers, but the next time we cycle up for jobs will be next March, so right at the moment there’s not much there, it’s not a high employment moment in the cycle.”
Seth Smedick is an 18-year-old university student who’s living at home while he studies a Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Canterbury.
He said he had been looking for a job since January, firing off about 100 job applications and getting two interviews, to supplement a small income from gymnastics coaching classes.
“It’s pretty hard because I drive in every day. I have to rely on my parents to be able to pay for fuel and I just contribute what I can because I only get $80 every two weeks.”
He said younger people like him didn’t want to relocate to fruit-growing regions for seasonal work.
“I think what a lot of older people don’t understand is that young people want to live where there’s good social connections, so like in the cities and towns.
“So the rural jobs like horticulture and agriculture aren’t that appealing to a lot of young people.”
He said he was already looking at moving overseas when he finished studying.
“I’ll move to Australia because there’s work there. I’ll move overseas. That’s my plan; after uni, I’m going to move overseas because there’s no work here.
“Everyone that I’ve talked to, their plan is to go overseas. None of us wants to stay here.”