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It comes in the wake of industry complaints that there are not enough pickers.
Orchard owners and recruiters say the reason for the non-response or failed applications may be a matter of time, as the summer fruits are just beginning to be picked now.
The government will allow up to 2,000 seasonal workers to come to New Zealand from the Pacific island nations starting in January.
They will have to spend two weeks in controlled isolation, paid by their employers at a cost of $ 4,722 per person, and will have to be paid a living wage of $ 22.10 an hour.
Gardeners who grow summer fruits say the influx of foreign workers is too small, too late, as some have already started picking cherries.
They expect this season to be possibly the biggest cherry harvest yet, but there will be a very small worker pool due to a lack of RSE (Recognized Seasonal Employer) workers and backpackers.
Local people who want to work picking fruit say they have tried and failed.
A Dunedin woman, Justine, who was fired earlier in the year and wanted a selective job, said she applied to three orchards and was turned down or ignored.
“I get so frustrated when I hear these stories how desperate they are [for workers] and I think it’s b …
“I feel like they have this preconceived idea about kiwis and their work ethic and I think … they are saying that they are desperate, that they are not hiring kiwis and then they are trying to attract people who want to pay less.”
Justine said she had stopped looking for selective jobs and was now looking in other sectors.
Many others contacted the Otago Daily Times with similar complaints about their attempts to land a fruit picking job in Central Otago, although some reported obtaining fruit picking jobs and “fully enjoying” the experience.
Hintons Orchard owner Nigel Hinton said his organization used to have about 90 CSR workers.
They were filling the void with high school and college students and he was surprised to hear that some people found it difficult to find work.
“The cherries are not ready yet and … to be fair, there probably isn’t much going on right now.
“But in a week or 10 days I would have thought that the producers would have been bothering people, even if they had to wait a week to start.”
Hinton said there is a clear divide between the work ethic of unemployed New Zealanders and CSR workers.
“CSR workers come here because they want to work, they need the job and they use the money they earn for their family in their villages back home … it’s a totally different beast.
“Dare [I] say so … many Kiwis have no work ethic and don’t want to work. “
At Cromwell, 45 South CEO Tim Jones said he was nervous that they wouldn’t have enough workers for their cherry harvest.
“We have received very good inquiries from a combination of kiwis and the few backpackers who are still in New Zealand.
“No one is quite sure if the people who have introduced us have also requested another 10 or 15 orchards in Central Otago. It is not until the first day until you really know.”
He said 45 South generally had around 150 CSR workers from Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Samoa.
This year they would be lucky to land 30 men who were now thinning apple trees in Hawke’s Bay and can hope to come to Central Otago for the cherry picking.
Jones said New Zealanders who ran and got lost may have left too early.
“The work doesn’t start until the fruit is ready to be picked and that doesn’t seem likely until early to mid-December and I’m pretty sure there will be a lot of jobs available in the district from then on.”
He said that every person who applied for a job at his organization received a response.
Con van der Voort, Ettrick’s orchard and packinghouse owner, said that most of its thinners and apple pickers were from Vanuatu and “at a stroke” were no longer available due to Covid-19 restrictions.
“We are in a serious situation … unless we have many more people, we will not be able to harvest our harvest.”
The Social Development Ministry said it had seen 1,055 job applications on its Work The Seasons website for the Southern Region.
