Fears on harvest labour for grain industry

Border lockdowns are causing some delays for the grain industry and could cause major headaches at harvest time.

Industry priority: The Victorian-NSW border closed last Wednesday in a bid to keep Victoria’s growing coronavirus outbreaks at bay.

CHALLENGES with Australia’s border closures could be amplified for the grains industry come harvest.

GrainGrowers president Brett Hosking anticipated problems moving staff from north to south in September, if outstanding concerns about state border closures weren’t addressed soon.

“Headers will need to continue to move north along with staff as we need employees to work them,” Mr Hosking said.

“We need to make sure Government understands agriculture’s needs.”

Mr Hosking said typically Victorian contractors travelled to Queensland then followed harvest down to northern NSW and then to Victoria.

“It’s four months of solid work that need staff,” he said.

Another issue would be the industry’s reliance on a skilled workforce, Mr Hosking said.

“We have backpacker workers who are professional header operators that would come to Australia for the southern harvest to drive our machines,” he said.

“It is extremely unlikely they will be able to come, so we won’t have our usual skilled workforce which is causing quite a headache.”

Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke agreed that “big issues” wouldn’t appear until spring.

“We need to make sure agriculture has propriety to transit to regional areas and that trucks in metro are able to pick up goods and return, as well as workers on different permits between states,” he said.

Agriculture has been shielded from the majority of issues arising from the border closure, after both states reconfirmed the industry and its wider supply chain were essential services.

The Victorian-NSW border closed last Wednesday in a bid to keep Victoria’s growing coronavirus outbreaks at bay.

A permit system has been rolled out for those who regularly need to cross the border.

Police and defence personnel manning checkpoints while some bridge crossings have been closed completely, leading to long queues and lengthy detours for motorists.

Rules limiting permits to those living within 50km of the border has caused some issues for farmers with properties in both states.

However, Mr Jochincke said these were individual cases that were being worked through.

“The intent is to let them do it, it’s just a matter of working through that permit system and getting some clarity around what’s allowed,” he said.

“On a macro level it’s business as usual, but people are conscious of how many times they cross the border in a day … they’re avoiding trips just to avoid losing time.”