Labour

The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, was at Exceldor Cooperative in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec, today to announce a number of initial projects funded under the $77.5 million Emergency Processing Fund.

AUSVEG, Australia’s peak industry body for vegetable and potato growers, supports the labour plan submitted by the National Farmers’ Federation’s Horticulture Council that will help give growers confidence that they can get the workers they need to get fruits and vegetables off the farm and to consumers.…

The British Columbia Fruit Growers’ Association is once again appealing to locals to consider picking fruit as temporary employment. A similar plea was made earlier in the season, just before the cherry harvest. The plea is deemed necessary in the wake of a severe labour shortage of foreign workers.…

This video shows a group of men in Kuwait. They're working with a massive heap of coconuts. They're deshelling the coconuts by hand. Surely there's a quicker, more innovative way to do this?

SAWP workers are now permitted to continue working beyond their end-date (up to 1-month) as identified on their employer’s LMIA for the 2020 season. For information on extending work permits for workers from other Temporary Foreign Worker Program streams, please visit the government website or view the…

The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) has stopped a Scottish vegetable growing business from using workers provided to them by an unlicensed recruitment agency. A Labour Market Enforcement Undertaking (LMEU) has been served to the business based in Angus, north-east Scotland, which supplies…

Amazon executive Jeff Wilke, a 20-year veteran of the company, plans to retire next year, but not before completing one of his major projects — eliminating human cashiers at Whole Foods locations across the country.

As British Columbia’s cherry season wraps up, thoughts turn towards next year and how to plan accordingly for what could be a large crop. These thoughts follow a challenging 2020 season. “It was a lower year for volume and it was a slower crop,” says Sukhpaul Bal, president of the B.C. Cherry…

Labour availability is a priority for apple and pear growers nationally, with negotiations to allow Pacific Islands workers entry to the country a key focus of both national and state bodies. A poll conducted last week by APAL found that 53 per cent of growers are ‘not confident’ of their chances of…

Fruit growers are appealing to British Columbians in need of work to help with the remaining harvest this year.

A California startup, Vinergy Inc., has equipment it says will improve vineyard efficiency by reducing a labor-intensive part of harvest — transporting grapes to the end of rows.

With the rechargeable Vinergy Cart and Vinergy Wheelbarrow, the Bakersfield, Calif., company promises to increase the amount of grapes that can be harvested by saving up two hours of labor for each team of pickers every day, according to a news release.

According to Vinergy, a standard 8-person crew can harvest about six boxes of table grapes an hour, at a labor cost of $4.33 a box over the course of a day. The Vinergy Cart can hold 16 boxes, increasing yield with a labor cost increase of 12.5%, but a real-world reduction of per-box labor costs that range from $1 to $2.30, according to the release.

“When we were picking significant volume we saw a tremendous cost savings during our trials with multiple crews and packing variations,” Rope Eddy, ranch manager for Bakersfield, Calif.-based Anthony Vineyards, said in the release. “Crews that were using traditional wheelbarrows were asking when they could begin using the Vinergy carts.  We are excited to begin working with the Vinergy team as we prepare for next season and scale more carts across our crews.”

The Australian Workers' Union, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association and the Transport Workers' Union have formed an alliance, calling for a ban on working holidaymaker visa. The unions want Australian farmers to stop hiring international backpackers to harvest their crops and instead…

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has decreased labor availability in many sectors of the economy. In agriculture, labor inputs consist of unpaid farm operator labor (including spouse and family labor), direct-hire labor, and labor contracted through a third party. In 2018, 62 percent of total farm labor hours…

Since the very beginning of this pandemic, the Government of Canada has taken a number of important steps to ensure the safe arrival of farm workers, who play a vital role in preserving Canada’s food security. To protect the health and safety of Canadian and migrant farm workers, the Government has been working with municipal, provincial and territorial governments, as well as farmers, workers and other employers who participate in the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program. Despite these efforts, there have been COVID-19 outbreaks on a number of Canadian farms that have significantly impacted the health and safety of workers.

A Prince George farm has grown so many strawberries they needed extra pickers to get them all.

An advocacy group supporting temporary foreign workers in B.C.'s Okanagan is raising concerns after two Mexican workers were fired from a West Kelowna nursery for violating the company's policies. 

Four people at Krazy Cherry Fruit Co. in Oliver B.C., have tested positive for the virus and the operation is now under restrictions imposed by Interior Health.

An Air New Zealand flight has carried 300 seasonal workers from Hawke's Bay, Blenheim, Gisborne, Martinborough and the Bay of Plenty home. The airline has been working closely with New Zealand Apples and Pears Inc, the largest employer of Samoan seasonal workers in the country. The company has been…

In California’s Central Valley, workers are still showing up to work day after day, but a serious worker shortage looms. The majority of those who are picking crops are migrant workers who came to the state to provide for their families. Their hard work keeps the American grocery stores stocked; without…

In California’s Central Valley, workers are still showing up to work day after day, but a serious worker shortage looms. The majority of those who are picking crops are migrant workers who came to the state to provide for their families. Their hard work keeps the American grocery stores stocked; without…

The governments of Canada and Ontario are providing the best support possible to help farmers manage challenges beyond their control by enhancing AgriInsurance coverage for the 2020 growing season to include labour shortages due to COVID-19.

Back in 2002, Global Fruit was established to support BC cherry growers in marketing their cherries to markets around the world. Since then, the company as well as the growers and packers it represents, have grown exponentially. “This year, Global Fruit is proud to be working with six packing houses and…

The labor shortages in Finland caused by the mobility restrictions introduced to stop the spread of the pandemic have led many Finns to go back to the fields to save their crops. This is confirmed by Vesa Koivistoinen, owner of the largest strawberry plantation in Finland, who for the first time in 22…

Costa and Melbourne Polytechnic are leading the way in the development of workplace training technology to provide an enhanced training experience for more Victorians. Mushroom harvesting is a skilled job that requires speed, agility, manual dexterity, and the ability to quickly identify when the produce is ready to be…

When UK farmers found themselves short-staffed due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, the government launched a campaign urging the public to cover the shortfall and “Pick for Britain”. With the recruitment campaign struggling to convert applicants into farm workers and Brexit already disrupting the supply…

The current pandemic has been very troubling on employment, as many in the UK have faced redundancies, put on the government’s furlough scheme or been ineligible for it and left to apply for Universal Credit. Recent figures show that around a quarter of the UK’s workforce has been placed on the…

The corona pandemic has once again demonstrated how dependent agriculture is on seasonal workers, but Norwegian growers may get help from robots next year. For Norwegian growers, the development of autonomous robots cannot move quickly enough, especially now that many of them are struggling to find…

When UK farmers found themselves short-staffed due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, the government launched a campaign urging the public to cover the shortfall and “Pick for Britain”. With the recruitment campaign struggling to convert applicants into farm workers and Brexit already disrupting the supply…

The cherries on Sukhdeep Brar's 100-acre orchard in Summerland, B.C., are just a few weeks out from ripening. But if he doesn't manage to find the workers to pick them, they will spoil.

Once the dust has settled following the COVID-19 pandemic, there is likely – many in the produce industry believe – to be an increasedawareness of the importance of safety in the food production process, including during the washing and preparing of vegetables. Here, treatments from JBT alliance partner,…