Southland's dairy industry continues to be plagued by a lack of skilled workers. DairyNZ recently ran a survey which found farmers were more inclined to employ New Zealand staff, but there was a shortage of skilled workers.
DairyNZ people team leader Jane Muir said there was a strong response to thesurvey which found farmers had been struggling to recruit good staff locally.
However, at manager level and above, farmers were reporting there was a reasonable pool of New Zealand candidates, with some even noting universityqualified applicants to be very good, she said.
"Farmers also enjoy and value the contribution their migrant staff make to their businesses."
In response to the farm owner and manager survey, DairyNZ, in conjunction with Venture Southland, would soon be running a migrant employee survey to better understand the future intentions of migrant staff, Ms Muir said.
The continued issue of the lack of skilled workers in the dairy industry in Southland and wider New Zealand, follows assistant herd managers and herd managers being taken off Immigration New Zealand's immediate skill shortage list in May last year.
Last year, Clutha-Southland MP Todd Barclay and former Minister for Ethnic Communities Sam Lotu-Iiga held a meeting in Winton with members of the Filipino community to discuss the issues facing their community.
He continued to pass on the concerns and comments to Minister for Immigration Michael Woodhouse, he said.
"It's proved abundantly clear to me, from all of the engagement that I've had with farmers and business across the electorate, that we simply don't have the capacity to fill all of the jobs in Southland with local labour."
In Clutha-Southland there were many migrant workers who had been living, working and contributing to their communities for many years, he said.
"We want to provide a pathway for these hardworking, tax-paying workers and their families to longterm settlement, so they can continue living and contributing to our communities.
The Government remains committed to implementing a pathway to residence for a limited number of long-term migrants on temporary work visas in the South Island, the details of which are still being worked through."
In Southland, the Southland Regional Development Strategy had been launched by all of the region's councils to attract 10,000 more people to live in the region by 2025.
A key platform of this initiative was to attract more skilled workers to the region, Mr Barclay said.
"I look forward to working further with industry stakeholders to support this. The pathway to residency for eligible migrant workers is going to be incredibly important for our region."
