Some Central Otago orchards are scrambling to find enough staff with less than a month until harvest.
Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades
During peak summer season in December and January, upwards of 5000 seasonal workers are needed across the horticulture and viticulture industries.
But their usual supply of backpackers remains cut off and it's unclear how many RSE workers will be around.
Earlier this year, growers raised concerns that the lack of workers during pruning and thinning would come back to bite them.
Clyde Orchards co-owner Kevin Paulin said they managed to get all their jobs done ahead of the harvest but it has been hard work.
"I have noticed around the district that there seems to be a few blocks that haven't been totally pruned or thinned... there has been issues with labour right through the last 12 months.
"I mean it's not going to get any easier. Once the harvest gets into full swing, that's when the pressure is really going to come on."
They had been working tirelessly through the winter to recruit - which had paid off.
Paulin said they were also in a better position with RSE workers than last year after one-way quarantine-free travel for RSE workers from Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu was given a green light.
"They're a very important part of our workforce, but we have 13 RSE workers out of our 150 staff so it's still only a reasonably small proportion."
Central Otago District Council has launched its Spare Room - Spare Time campaign urging locals to pitch in and encourage friends and family to pick this summer to ease the predicted worker shortages.
Every year, Kevin Paulin's nieces came down from Tauranga to stay with him and pick cherries, nectarines and peaches.
"We've often had friends and family stay during the harvest season to help out. My two nieces have come down, probably the eldest is on her 10th time that she's been down to help during the harvest.
"It's a good experience for them to come and spend time with the family and also earn some money for their university studies and whatnot."
Staff shortages were inevitable after Christmas especially if they had a bumper cherry harvest, he said.
For Webb's Fruit owner Simon Webb, the search for summer staff started months earlier than usual in June.
He grows summer stone fruit, apples and pears over 45 hectares near Cromwell.
He said they were well placed for staff to start the season, but was worried about what February and March might bring.
"You get a few school kids leaving at the end of January. We replace with some backpackers out of the cherry orchards and then as we get busier as we get through February, we used to pick up more and more backpackers so that's our scary thing right now.
"The rest of our workforce is fairly stable. We've got less RSEs than normal but we've made that up with students and some of the older people."
He has got four RSE workers in but he wasn't sure how the rest would be allocated for the upcoming season.
"There's a lot of cherry guys out there who probably haven't shored up all their staff yet so they're going to be scampering for the last few staff that are around and if there is a good crop or we get a bit of a spell of warm weather, it's going to be hard work out there."
Webb was expecting to feel the worker shortage around March and April.
"Down in Central Otago here, we're quite busy with grape harvest and apply harvest during that time so you're needing an extra 10 hands out there on your orchard.
"Everyone's fighting for every spare staff member around at that time and there aren't spare hands around to be honest. If you haven't put the ground work in early and got your staff set up early, it's going to get really hard."
Cheeki Cherries was preparing for a summer with only two orchards.
Its owner Martin Milne said they sold their largest orchard which meant they would only need about 10 staff instead of more than 100.
"We have three varieties of trees and it's pretty full on where you could be picking 25 tonnes in a day so you need over 100 people.
"Now at the moment, we've probably got 22 to 23 varieties so our season starts probably in about 10 days time and it will go through to early February, so rather than have that intense time where we need everybody, work is now really spread out."
Those staff would alternate between mail orders, picking and working in the shop.
He expected accommodation would be in short supply as some big pack houses were asking smaller growers to provide their own staff housing.
"Hence people are having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars putting in sewage tanks and accommodation blocks and hiring cabins and all sorts.
"I think that is probably more of a worry at the moment as opposed to actually getting the people, it's where you can accommodate them."