Millions wasted in dire situation as unpicked crops continue to rot

The seasonal worker shortage is starting to hit hard for farmers across the country.

More than $38 million worth of unpicked produce has already been lost on farms in Queensland, with the Victorian harvest season beginning to ramp up now.

Emma Germano President of the Victorian Farmers Federation says it’s a frustrating situation that could have been avoided.

“We’ve been predicting that there’s going to be a major problem when the pandemic first started and the borders were closed,” she told Tom Elliott on 3AW Drive.

“This comes down to political will, because there’s nothing logistically that’s challenging about this.

“It often only takes a small amount of produce not to be on the shelf, say 10 per cent less volume than normal, then we see price hikes.

“It’s something that’s really important, and yet no one seems to want to do anything about it.”

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