RNZ National 7am
14 July 2020 - Media Release - Radio New Zealand
The horticultural industry is worried the country won't have enough workers when the apple harvest gets underway. The sector group [New Zealand] Apples & Pears says normally between 60 and 80,000 temporary workers are employed when the harvest begins in early spring. But orchards may have to make do with fewer than half this year. A spokesperson Gary Jones says the industry is a major export earner but without pickers it can't deliver. The organisation's asking the government to devise a plan to keep the thousands of foreign workers with visas about to expire in the country.