Mountain Blue has ‘hundreds of jobs’ on offer picking and packing fruit at new Lismore facility

The family-owned company is hoping to pick and package more than 3000 tons of fruit this year, and they need workers for their newly opened facility and their expanding farms.

Hundreds on new jobs are on offer on the Northern Rivers with berry producer Mountain Blue opening a brand new packing centre in Lismore.

Managing director Andrew Bell said the first fruit packing machine was installed on Monday, and packing work will begin on Tuesday.

“We’ve got a number of jobs picking fruit at our Alstonville farm, and the new packing centre in Lismore could require up to 80 people at the peak of our season, and we are looking for Lismore residents for that, and we are also looking for people to pick blueberries at our farm in Tabulam,” he said.

“Across the three sites, there will most certainly be a couple of hundred jobs available this season,” he said.

“If we got hundreds of locals, that would be fantastic.”

Mountain Blue has been employing international workers from the Federal Government’s Seasonal Workers Program this year, and last year it offered a share of $50,000 for its best fruit pickers and packers.

The company lodged a DA with Lismore City Council in April, with the building to be used to pack and store blueberries.

Mr Bell said more packing machines would be moved from Tabulam later this week into the new South Lismore building.

“We got to capacity at the Tabulam packing shed, so our options were either to continue to expand at Tabulam or put another shed in Lismore, and we opted for Lismore because it will probably be easier for us to find workers,” he explained.

“We should be able to pack up to 3000 tons of fruit every year.”

Mountain Blue, which has farms at Lindendale and Tabulam, is a family-owned and operated company which has been around for more than 40 years.

The executive said the opening of the Lismore facility marks a milestone for his family’s firm.

“We are definitely growing, we are putting more plants in and growing more products,” he said.

“We currently sell blueberries and raspberries, and we are in the process of rolling out blackberries soon.”

For information on jobs at the Lismore facility, visit the company’s website.