increase font size
Simon Watson says the biggest challenge as a country and as an industry is a shortage of labour.
Simon Watson, vice chair of Tomatoes NZ, says the biggest challenge as a country and as an industry is a shortage of labour.
"And it is a genuine shortage of labour because we can advertise heavily through the internet and through print media and we get no replies. That is a sign the country is very, very short of labour."
He says worker shortages are not just in horticulture, but right across the whole economy.
"There is just a fundamental shortage of labour and it is absolutely stifling business. No one can dare expand and indeed some businesses are looking to scale back production because they can't guarantee they will be able to pick the product let alone process it.
"This winter we had some weeks we were around 20% down on what we need to operate the business."
Watson says Wellington have been very slow to be able to react to the need for more labour. "The ball is in their court - they can fix it if they want to but they have got to want to," he says.
"We have a system that is broken, it is expensive, clumsy and difficult.
"We are not alone in the developed world in being short of labour and other countries like Canada and Australia have streamlined their pathways for immigration to bring workers in."
Watson says a worker sitting in Malaysia or Taiwan or wherever and who wants a job, will go through the less difficult path to secure it.
"You will go through the easy path and you will go to place like Canada because they have thrown open the welcome mat and they are paying good money and the pathways are simple, straight forward and inexpensive."
He adds that in terms of growth plans they are very nervous about doing anything now "because they can't guarantee they would have people to staff it".
NZ Hothouse Ltd's managing director Simon Watson reckons if you want to make something expensive, difficult and clumsy you get a bureaucrat in Wellington to do it – referring to labour shortages and worker visa settings.
New Zealand's largest celebration of rural sports athletes and enthusiasts – New Zealand Rural Games - is back for its 10th edition, kicking off in Palmerston North from Thursday, March 6th to Sunday, March 9th, 2025.
Southland breeder Tim Gow attributes the success of his Shire breed of hair sheep to the expert guidance of his uncle, the late Dr Scott Dolling, who was a prominent Australian animal geneticist.
Progeny testing at Pāmu’s Kepler farm in Southland as part of Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Informing New Zealand Beef programme is showing that the benefits of hybrid vigour could have a massive impact on the future of beef breeding.
Vegetable grower NZ Hothouse Ltd has always been ahead of the game when it comes to sustainability, but new innovations are coming thick and fast.
OPINION: Submissions on the Government's contentious Gene Technology Bill have closed.
Alliance Group has secured greater access for chilled beef exports into China following approval of its Levin and Mataura plants to supply that market. With its first load of beef from Levin clearing Chinese customs in early January and a shipment from Mataura recently arriving in China, journalist Leo Argent talked to Alliance general manager safety and processing Wayne Shaw.
OPINION: Henry Dimbleby, author of the UK's Food Strategy, recently told the BBC: "Meat production is about 85% of our…
OPINION: For the last few weeks, we've witnessed a parade of complaints about New Zealand's school lunch program: 'It's arriving…
