Fruit Growers Victoria Limited (FGV) is an organisation that provides a voice for growers, packers and exporting businesses across the North-East, Central and Southern growing regions of Victoria, Australia.
Recently, FGV spoke with Jack Ward from the British Growers Association on the challenges of COVID-19, mainly on labour issues that are currently problematic and how it has impacted their harvest season.
Ward said on the labor situation: "One of the lines we were able to use with the media to explain why UK farms were bringing workers in from overseas was that they needed to balance locally recruited workforces that had never done this work before with returnees from Bulgaria and Romania. Growers have reported that people coming back year after year are anything up to 30% more efficient than someone who has never done this work before and this is a significant factor in terms of operating within tight commercial margins."
Ward offered some good advice and tips on how Australia can prepare and would welcome setting up meetings with any growers who wanted to chat with British Growers directly.
