Apple grower Sue Finger says it s crunch time for Victoria s horticulture workforce.
As her Vernview Orchard at Launching Place welcomed some of the first overseas farm workers returning to the state, Ms Finger has warned the industry needs to rethink how it sources labour during peak harvest periods.
Six workers from Vanuatu have arrived at Vernview in the Yarra Valley and they are among the first group of 200 from Pacific islands that has arrived in Victoria after quarantining in Tasmania.
Eventually, farms in the state will welcome 1500 Pacific workers under the deal struck between the Victorian and Tasmanian governments.
The new workers will join a raft of East Timorese people who boarded an airplane (pictured) as in Dili in December 2020 to pick fruit in Australia