Australian farmers are facing the tough decision to walk away from their crops after border lockdowns prevented workers from entering the country for the peak harvesting season.
State borders may now be reopening but the expected fall in production from labour shortages is forecasted to increase the price of summer fruit and vegetables by between 15 per cent and 25 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences.
Stanthorpe strawberry and avocado grower Nathan Baronio has already abandoned a six-and-a-half-acre block of 30,000 strawberries due to a lack of staff and is expecting further cutbacks without more workers.
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"They should have brought in another 95,000 punnets of strawberries, which at $2.50 a punnet, you're looking at about $240,000," he said.
"As you cut more and more off, then you're starting to get to those higher profitability blocks. When you get to the peak profitability blocks and you are going to cut them off, then you're looking at serious financial loss."
For Lakeland banana farmer Paul Inderbitzin, in far North Queensland, that reality is fast approaching. He believes that regional areas like his will find it hard to carry on next year with the current conditions.
"Right now there is a shortfall in our current number of workers to the amount of work that needs to be done," he said.
"I could do with another five people on this property out of 25. We're not a big farm but that's a fifth of my workforce that aren't there and how are we going to pick up the slack and get that done?"
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As the season follows the harvest trail down through NSW and into Victoria early next year, hundreds of growers will also be forced to consider their options during their busiest period if government fails to intervene.
Although a $17.4 million two-year commitment was made in the Federal Budget to offer domestic workers a $6000 assistance rebate to relocate to regional areas for work, industry bodies believe that making arrangements to allow overseas workers back into the country should be a priority.
AUSVEG National Public Affairs Manager Tyson Cattle says there are at least 4000 workers ready to go in the Pacific Islands nations but stoushes over quarantine responsibility between state and federal governments prevented them from providing farms much-needed relief.
"We believe the federal government needs to seriously reconsider its position around developing a Pacific nations travel bubble... and start bringing these people in from the Pacific nations that are work-ready and COVID-free," he said.
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What frustrates Mr Cattle more is the fact that industry has been signalling the issue with government since the beginning of the pandemic.
"We've known that this iceberg essentially was about to hit really hard particularly in the mid to end of October and going to get worse through some months, and to be honest that's exactly what's happening."
Without the arrival of international workers, relying on local workers to fill the gaps seems increasingly unlikely, with Mr Inderbitzen saying that his doors aren't "getting knocked down with Australians or backpackers trying to pick up work".
For Mr Baronio, it's the question of how many workers he would have to hire in surplus if they're inexperienced.
"On a normal year at peak I need 200 workers, but if I've got an inexperienced staff, I'll potentially need 400 workers," he said.
"From a long-term perspective, we need to get more Aussies back into these jobs. We need to get them experienced and we need to get them back into loving farm work."
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Growcom Manager of Policy and Advocacy Richard Shannon says that securing a dedicated and specialised workforce going forward has never been more important.
"As an industry we deserve a workforce that is skilled and motivated. And that's an issue that we've highlighted with government for years, and COVID-19 has put that into really sharp focus."
With Christmas fast approaching, Mr Baronio is conscious the already high demand in fresh produce will only increase with more Australians spending the holiday period at home than abroad.
"It's bloody hard on all of our teams and hats off to every single person who works for me or works for anyone and everyone trying to do what they can to get the job done. And we need some help, because we want to do a good job," he said.
"We want to have a good product, we want to get it all picked, and we're busting our ass trying to do it and you're just chasing your tail at some stages and it's just a horrible feeling, it really is."
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