Backpacker number drop could hurt hort industry

Tourism Research Australia has reported backpacker visitor numbers to South Australia dropped by 10…

Tourism Research Australia has reported backpacker visitor numbers to South Australia dropped by 10 per cent in 2014 and some fruit picking jobs are not being filled.

Labour harvest contractor, Scott Cameron, said he is concerned South Australia is losing seasonal workers to other horticulture regions and attracting new workers may be a problem. He said while there are enough workers to complete the harvest, there is a risk workers will burn out.

"Right at this point in time we're looking for probably 80 to 100 additional workers to what we've got at the moment. As far as still achieving the harvest we've still got enough labour in order to do that, however we really do need a few more people.
There's other parts of Australia which are warmer, they've got opportunities to work longer hours and they are starting to chose those regions over us."

He said many in the industry are experiencing low occupancy numbers, which has meant he ca not assist farmers and labour contractors to source seasonal workers.

"We act as a bit of a de facto employment agency and there's always people asking for potential employees and at the moment they're struggling to fill them," he said.

"There was one request that came in for 100 backpackers to pick oranges in Renmark, that came in about a week ago and we literally had one person in the place that we could point to that. Previously we would have had 10 or 15.

"When you get data that says that everybody else is going fine and South Australia is suffering from as significant a decline as it is, then you have to ask what South Australia is doing differently."