SUPPLIED
Orchardist Bruce Mitchell left six blocks of royal gala apples on the trees this season due to a lack of pickers. “I was desperate and did everything I could to find people to harvest the apples, but on the day, we started, I was expecting 20 pickers and only two people turned up, so we physically couldn’t pick 40 per cent of the gala crop.” Mitchell is among hundreds of orchardists and exporters who have left export quality fruit on the trees or compromised quality with fruit not picked at the optimal time. “We can’t continue to spend money on keeping our business alive without a guarantee of labour in the future. It’s just not possible,” Mitchell said.
Pacific bubble being considered, but won t bring seasonal worker numbers back to pre-Covid-19 level — Faafoi
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Coronavirus: Growers make desperate plea to Government for certainty on Pacific travel bubble
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Audrey Young: Jacinda Ardern manages expectations over transtasman bubble
6 Apr, 2021 07:30 AM
3 minutes to read
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern s Cabinet were also right in calculating there was no groundswell here for it to happen very much earlier than now. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern s Cabinet were also right in calculating there was no groundswell here for it to happen very much earlier than now. Photo / Mark Mitchell
OPINION:
It may be time to break out the bubbly for the expansion of the New Zealand bubble to Australia, or maybe not. The bubbly may well have gone flat given the amount of time