'Pacific bubble' being considered, but won't bring seasonal worker numbers back to pre-Covid-19 level — Faafoi

Thursday, 8 April 2021

The government was looking at ways to bring in further RSE workers for the 2021/22 season, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi says. (File pic).

The Government is considering a possible Pacific Bubble, but it’s unlikely to result in the numbers of fruitpickers and horticultural workers coming into the country that we once had, says Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi.

Faafoi was responding to a “desperate plea” from exporters, growers, and industry leaders made at a media event in Hawke’s Bay on Wednesday.

The group pleaded to Government and Faafoi for a plan that would allow more Pacific Island workers into the country “to avoid the devastating impact which is happening now”.

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They said a shortage of labour had led to thousands of tonnes of fruit being left on trees.

The apple industry alone is already predicting losses upwards of $600 million to provincial New Zealand economies as the national crop forecasts are 14 per cent down on 2020.

Peter Cederman employs RSE workers at his Brooklyn orchard in the Tasman district and says his business couldn't survive without them. (Video first published October 11, 2020)

In November, the heads of several industry groups made a submission to the Government for the return of Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers to New Zealand.

The scheme usually allows 12,000 RSE workers into the country each year but that number had fallen to 7000 this year due to border closures.

The industry submission indicated potential direct losses of up to $1.1 billion and a labour deficit of 11,000 workers across horticulture and wine in March.

Organic apple grower and exporter John Bostock said Bostock New Zealand had “gone all out” and ran massive recruitment campaigns to try to recruit New Zealanders but the people just were not there.

Bostock said the impact endured this season had been foreseeable and avoidable, and the industry needed the Government to announce a plan for the return of RSE workers from Covid-free Pacific Island countries.

“We urgently need a plan for 2022 to avoid the carnage we have seen this season. With such low unemployment rates, there are not enough New Zealanders available for work.

“We have created tens of thousands of permanent fulltime jobs through the RSE scheme and without seasonal workers the fabric of our communities is at risk. We cannot continue to operate on a knife edge.”

Faafoi said the Government was “looking at what further options might be available to bring in additional limited numbers of RSE workers for the 2021/22 season, including a possible Pacific bubble”.

“We acknowledge and appreciate the sectors’ importance to the New Zealand economy, and working with them in the past has meant we have been able to bring in over 2000 experienced seasonal workers from Pacific countries – the single biggest economic-based class border exception,” he said.

“We also made changes to Working Holiday Visas and Supplementary Seasonal Employer scheme visas to allow flexibility for workers to help with this summer’s harvests,” Faafoi said.

He said the Government had not set possible RSE numbers for next season, “but we have made clear to sector representatives that, under current Covid constraints, and even with quarantine-free travel with Australia, it is still unlikely that we will be able to bring in the sort of RSE worker numbers next season (2021/22) that were able to come here pre-Covid”.