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

A microcosm of Australians’ reluctance to work on farms can be seen in Victoria’s Yarra valley.

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.

Australians aren’t lazy, according to Gilbert, we’re simply spoilt for choice in a situation mirrored in most developed countries.

“Australians are harder to get, because we’re lucky to have a lot of options in front of us as to what we do for employment,” says Gilbert.

“When I grew up there was not a cafe or three on every corner like there is now.”

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

“If I said to him, ‘I’ve got seven farms, where do you want to work?’ There’s no way. It’s similar money to stacking the fruit and veg shelves in air-conditioned comfort versus sitting in a damp field for half a day.”