Australian farmers await overseas workforce as locals are too ?spoilt for choice? - The Guardian Australia

CEO of a group of strawberry farms, Miffy Gilbert, struggled to source labour for the current harvest, while her teenage son works as a shelf-stacker at a supermarket.

Gilbert is also CEO of AusBerry Farmers, a collaborative farming effort between seven families in the Yarra valley.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences is predicting record production values for a second year in a row. The bureau is also reporting a shortage of about 22,000 workers across the country over the next quarter, with 16,000 of these in horticulture. Closed borders have exacerbated the shortage, as has the Australian-UK trade deal in June which removed the farm work requirement for about 10,000 British backpackers to extend their working holiday visas.

Gilbert started sourcing labour almost as soon as the previous harvest finished. She thought she might scrape through.

More than $60m worth of crop losses have been self-reported by farmers nationally since mid-2020, but the actual figure is likely to be far higher.

An agricultural visa has long been on the horizon. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, promised in June to have the visa in place by the end of the year, after the announcement of the UK trade deal, but details remain vague.

The other potential solution was an incentive of $6,000 for Australians to relocate for work. Former deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, even noted the Instagram opportunities for young Australians in regional locations.

My correspondence with Harvest Trail Information Services (HTIS) began in mid-December 2020. Despite an extensive paperwork trail, I am yet to receive a cent of the incentive, despite picking my last grape more than seven months ago.

Maddy Muller and Riley Harrington, originally from Bendigo, are in the same boat.

Gilbert is optimistic about what the visa will offer, but says diversifying is key when it comes to sourcing labour.

Not all are as buoyant. Deputy program director of migration at the Grattan Institute, Henry Sherrell, specialises in labour markets and immigration policy.

Australian Workers Union national secretary, Daniel Walton, is more blunt.

Sherrell believes that while it has been a tough few years for labour-intensive farms, there is light at the end of the tunnel.