Cheeki Cherries owner Martin Milne says they sleep with one eye open to the weather until the fruit has fully formed. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
Central Otago orchards say the upcoming harvest is looking promising but there are more challenges ahead.
The Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme recently received a cap boost with up to 19,000 places available for the 2022-23 year.
Driving through Central Otago, the cherry blossoms are slowly giving way to fruit after a colder start to spring.
45 South chief executive Tim Jones. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
45 South employs upwards of 500 people during the cherry harvest.
Chief executive Tim Jones has been pleased to see New Zealanders returning to pick fruit and more backpackers in the country.
"I think most cherry growers would be thinking that the light's at the end of the tunnel this season from a worker point of view and that there should be enough people out there to help us out."
Jones welcomed the increase to the RSE cap, but expected it would be a bit too late for the cherry harvest.
"That is going to be really important moving forward. Our industry is still growing, lots of young plantings and there will be a requirement for more and more labour, not just the seasonal labour over December and January and the summer period to come and pick, but also more winter work with a lot of these orchards requiring pruning in the winter."
A cherry orchard near Alexandra in spring. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
Up to 80 percent of their fruit is for export.
For the past two years, they have been able to use mostly passenger-free planes to carry up to 40 tonnes of freight per plane.
"Now there's passengers back, we're down to getting 10-15 tonnes per plane that's leaving New Zealand," Jones said.
"There's not three times as many planes as there were so I think freight space is going to be really tight this year and there will be freight forwarders, growers and exporters looking at some interesting ways to try and get their fruit to market. There could have to be the use of sea freight this year."
Sea freight meant roughly three weeks of travel time to get to market instead of 48 hours via planes, making it more of a logistical challenge, he said.
Martin Milne from Cheeki Cherries says you never know how the season will turn out until it ends. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
In Cromwell, Martin Milne from Cheeki Cherries was hopeful about the upcoming harvest.
"So far, so good. But you never know until the end of the season when the money's in the bank, that's when you know you've had a good season."
Walking through the cherry orchard with his dog Mace at his heel, Milne said the trees were not showing many signs that snow hit only a few weeks ago.
The frost machines - that look like windmills - fire up at around zero degrees, sucking warmer air down and blowing it through the trees.
"Generally when we're just starting to blossom and until the fruits actually formed, we'll be sleeping with one eye open, always getting ready to put a frost machine on."
Clyde Orchards owner Kevin Paulin is concerned the cooler start to spring could mean the season is running late. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
Clyde Orchards owner Kevin Paulin said they secured their staff early on as their cherries were ready to pick earlier than most.
They usually have up to 150 workers, including a dozen RSE workers during peak harvest.
"We normally, for the last few years, have been able to keep them for the full season. So we sort of avoided that difficult time in the peak of the cherry harvest where some orchards have had some real problems securing staff," Paulin said.
He was concerned the cooler start to spring could mean the season was running late.
"That could cause some issues with marketing with a very early Chinese New Year. I think a lot of the cherry growers are a little bit concerned that we may not be able to get away all our crop off in time for Chinese New Year so that could cause some issues.
"Wee bit early to tell yet because we've still got a wee way to go. But we could do with some nice warm weather for the next two months."
Seasonal Solutions chief executive Shaun Fogarty said it would take time to build their workforce back up.
Seasonal Solutions chief executive Shaun Fogarty Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
"It's still a very challenging period coming out of Covid with a lot of international implications with flight availability, airlines getting back up on their feet," Fogarty said.
"We've had a lot of RSE staff stuck here during Covid and ... once we got them home, they need a stand down period," he said.
"So just getting back into a cycle of winter and summer season crews will take another six to 12 months."