New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet has announced that international arrivals won't have to isolate when entering NSW if they are fully vaccinated and test negative for the virus before and after their flight. The state’s farmers hope that the opening of international borders will ease the critical labor shortage in their industry as they try to harvest what they claim is ‘a sensational crop’ with very few workers.
Forecasts show this season's crop will reach tip 16.08 million tons, but farmers desperately need laborers who often come from Pacific nations. NSW Farmers President James Jackson warned there was still a massive task ahead for primary producers grappling with the problem of a once in a generation ‘sensational crop’ with few laborers.
"This is a positive step but our farmers are still in a very desperate situation. They are trying to source workers for harvest and even though the removal of quarantine will help, we are concerned the workers won't arrive in time," Jackson told perthnow.com.au. "The state government has opened a window to the world and now we need harvest workers to go to the farms where they're needed."