Tasmanian apples going to waste as growers struggle to find workers
“Unless we get more people immediately we will have second-grade apples or they will need to be juiced,” Mr Brown said. “It will cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars,”
Mr Brown said a combination of the backpacker tax and other fruit sectors employing part of the casual labour pool had seen his farm suffer.
Among prodcers, Mr Brown isn't alone in this respect. Fruit Growers Tasmania business development manager Phil Pyke said apple growers were also struggling to find pickers this season.
While Mr Pyke said the shortage in workers could not be directly attributed to the backpacker tax debate, he also believes it was partly to blame. “People making plans to come on first-year visas didn’t come. We’ve got to look at how we solve this in the long term,” he said.
source: theadvocate.com.au
