Red meat sector battles on
It's a bloody tough year for sheep farmers, but the worst may be over, and the future looks optimistic.
Pig farmers have joined a growing chorus in the primary sector calling on the Government to urgently review its migrant worker policies in the wake of Covid-19.
Both agricultural contractors and dairy farming organisations have also recently asked for rule changes around migrant workers.
“Each year, New Zealand’s pig farming industry relies on experienced workers from overseas to meet a shortfall in staff with the necessary skills required to work with the country’s pig herd,” explains NZ Pork chief executive David Baines.
He says the pig industry is concerned that skilled migrants already working on pig farms in New Zealand may not have their visas renewed or existing workers trying to return from overseas visits will be blocked, leaving many farmers with significant staffing shortages.
“The sector’s strong preference would be to have a pool of available skilled and unskilled New Zealand workers,” Baines claims.
“However, pig farming is a relatively niche sector in New Zealand and the reality is that there is a significant shortage of New Zealanders applying for these roles.”
He says the pork sector relies on a supply of skilled migrant workers who have been trained in their home countries.
“The numbers in total are small, particularly compared to major industries such as dairy, but the productivity of the industry is very vulnerable because of the precision nature of pig farming.”
Baines says NZ Pork has requested an urgent meeting with the Minister of Immigration Iain Lees-Galloway to discuss the issue.
He says pig farmers have raised concerns that migrant staff may not have their visas renewed this year.
“Or that migrant workers cannot currently enter New Zealand and that existing staff on visas are facing difficulties returning from overseas visits as a result of immigration measures taken in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Baines says other issues include the cost of visas, processing times, a lack of pathway to residency and a lack of consistency from Immigration New Zealand in terms of visa length and conditions.
“While we recognise that Covid-19 has and will continue to leave New Zealanders out of work and hopefully create some opportunities locals who are prepared and willing to work on pig farms,” Baines added.
“The sector cannot wait for such people to perhaps become available. Our animals need continuous skilled and committed care to be provided.”
The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards has added ASB Bank to its national sponsor family.
The quest to measure, report and make sense of the energy that goes into food production has come a long way in the past 25 years.
Animal disease management agency OSPRI has announced sweeping governance changes as it seeks to recover from the expensive failure of a major software project.
Driving down Broadlands Road, northeast of Taupo there's a cluster of 19 Pāmu dairy farms around what is known as the Wairakei Estate.
Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ) says the Government’s new gene editing and genetic modification reforms could leave New Zealand as an outlier on the global stage.
Weaker milk production in the Northern Hemisphere is keeping dairy prices high.
OPINION: Was the ASB Economic Weekly throwing shade on Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr when reporting on his speech in…
OPINION: A reader recently had a shot at the various armchair critics that she judged to be more than a…