Overseas workforce set to come to Northern Territory mango farmers’ rescue

UPDATE: The Territory is preparing to welcome 170 workers from Vanuatu on August 20 to help pick mangoes this season as part of a new trial to fill the industries worker shortage

Mango trees

UPDATE: The Territory is preparing to welcome 170 workers from Vanuatu on August 20 to help pick mangoes this season as part of a new trial to fill the industries worker shortage.

Senator Sam McMahon revealed details of the trial on Tuesday to the relief of NT mango farmers who are facing a shortage of 800-1000 workers this season due to travel restrictions.

“If the trial is successful, this will pave the way to bring in more workers and expand into other countries like Samoa and Timor who are also interested in this program,” she said.

“We are going to be the first jurisdiction in Australia to be able to bring in seasonal workers and will hopefully see them arrive within the next few weeks. They will arrive on a direct charter flight and undergo mandatory 14-day quarantine at Howard Springs before they can go out on the farms.”

NT Farmer’s Association chief executive Paul Burke said at this stage industry would be underwriting the costs of the charter flight and mandatory quarantine for all 170 workers, which is estimated to amount to about half a million dollars.

He said they were hoping the NT Government would agree to a cost-sharing arrangement but Primary Industries Minister Paul Kirby insisted quarantine fees would be a matter for industry and the workers.

“We’re still in talks about a possible payment agreement, so I haven’t given up hope on getting government assistance just yet,” Mr Burke said

“This will be a significant cost on the industry, but we have no other options.

“We want locals to fill these jobs, but the locals themselves don’t necessarily want to do this work. Vanuatu is a good fit for this trial because they have been COVID-19 free for a fair period of time, and we have workers ready to go there.

“We’ve already got a good relationship with Vanuatu, and their workers have been coming here for a few years now.”

He said farms would need to be a registered seasonal worker hosts, of which there are about 11 in the NT, to participate in the trial.

EARLIER: HOPES are high that a small overseas work force of fruit pickers will come to the rescue of Top End mango farmers struggling to get pickers for the coming season with the Federal Government making an announcement today.

Farmers across Northern Australia have warned they face a worker shortage and not even being unemployed is enough to entice Australian workers into the mango plantations.

The situation is so critical the Federal Government has decided on a pilot program that would allow up to 200 fruit pickers from Vanuatu to be flown into the Northern Territory.

The Territory mango industry has been lobbying for the workers to arrive in the NT midway through this month to undergo 14 days quarantine at Howard Springs.

The Territory Government is supportive of the plan that would see the workers quarantine 14-days and then with a clean bill of health this would allow pickers to be on farms in early September.

State and territory agriculture ministers have discussed the labour shortage with the Federal Government and Deputy Nationals Leader David Littleproud acknowledged the difficulty in getting unemployed Australians to do farm work.

‘There’s a real aversion from the Australian workforce to go and pick fruit … even when the dole was $550 a fortnight, we couldn’t get people off the couch to go and pick fruit,’ Mr Littleproud said.

Jenko’s Mangoes part owner and part managing director Corey Jenkins recently told the NT News that his usual picking team typically consisted of workers from Vanuatu who had years of experience with the company.

He said without a change of Federal Government stance this year Jenko’s Mangoes and other farmers will be forced to employ inexperienced pickers.

Mr Jenkins said he was worried for his crops, a concern he said was shared among all of the Territory’s mango farmers.

The Northern Territory’s Primary Industries Minister Paul Kirby has confirmed talks have taken place for the pilot program with the federal government

He said the NT Government is continuing to work very closely with the Federal Government at both ministerial and departmental level to examine visa and quarantine arrangements for potential opportunities to source workers.