The Government has scrapped rules limiting the employment of fruit-picking holidaymakers in an attempt to avert a labour crisis in the national harvest.
Horticulture New Zealand said the pipfruit harvest would get underway in a few weeks with Hawkes Bay and Nelson needing at least another 5000 workers.
Pipfruit exports are worth about $400 million, with wider horticultural industry exports totalling $2.3 billion.
The crisis had been linked by some in the industry to low unemployment and the replacement of the Seasonal Work Permit - under which holidaymakers could work their way around the country - with the Recognised Seasonal Employer policy (RSE).
The RSE intends to meet labour needs by letting employers hire the same workers for several seasons.
A transitional scheme let holidaymakers be used but limited them to one employer.
The industry had argued this would mean visiting workers could no longer follow the harvest trail and that fruit could be left to rot.
Yesterday, Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove said changes would be made to let workers on visitors' permits move between employers and regions.
The changes would fine-tune the transitional scheme and the Variation of Conditions for seasonal work that had been agreed with industry last year.
Pipfruit New Zealand chief executive Peter Beaven said the harvest trail had been reconstituted.
"The next concern we've got obviously is that we've actually got enough people here and that they become aware of these changes so that it's no longer a barrier to them entering the harvest season."
Some fruit pickers have blamed the worker shortage on the levels of pay. Apple pickers tend to be paid about $30-$35 a bin and could be expected to earn $150 a day.
Mr Beaven said: "Hell there's a lot of people get paid much less than that."
Council of Trade Unions secretary Carol Beaumont said she was concerned that the industry has managed to further water down the RSE scheme.
"Our concern is that growers are only looking for immigration solutions rather than dealing with the larger and longer-term issues in the labour market."
