Labor Cost

Fair Farms is an Industry-led initiative aimed at fostering fair and responsible employment practices in Australian Horticulture. Fair Farms believe that the majority of horticulture growers and other industry members want to do the right thing by their workers. However, it can be challenging to navigate our complex employment and WHS laws and regulations. As…

A profitable packing house needs to send out the right fruit in the right quantities at the right time. Until now, growers have relied on manual weighing and the accuracy of their staff to ensure that fruit is packed to weight. However, in a dynamic operation where multiple products are being run on the same…

Recently, on ABC’s ‘Landline’ program, there was a fantastic article on the Australian cherry industry. Featuring growers from the Young and Orange growing regions, the piece offers excellent insights into the industry from new operators, right through to highly experienced veterans of the game. One of our long-standing customers, Fiona Hall of the BiteRiot brand…

Tasmania’s reputation for high-quality fresh produce is truly well deserved. There’s pride in the fruit that’s produced and great care is taken to ensure that fruit is delivered to consumers at a level that defines the region as one of the world’s greatest. When Spreyton Fresh and GP Graders first established their relationship, nearly 10…

In a time when labour is not only expensive but also in short supply, a business plan or strategy that’s weighted towards staff reduction is more important than ever before. If the yields that your business is producing exceed 100 tonnes, and you’re still using manual methods to grade your fruit, it’s high time you…

The industry has been severely disrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic and it is obvious there will be long-term consequences to the produce sorting landscape. In many countries, a majority of packing staff workforces are populated by overseas workers, most of whom are in the country on a temporary basis. Movement between borders is almost certain…

JobKeeper payments don’t apply to most packers, meaning that finding the pickers and sorting staff needed to harvest and grade the crop is becoming a much greater concern. Not having enough people to work the harvest will be catastrophic to the industry. This risk is very real, with university students remaining overseas and backpackers and…

The push to remove human contact from the produce grading process is highly warranted. Although profitability is always a priority, it’s far from the only driver behind the trend. The supply of picking and sorting staff has been severely reduced due to the state of international borders. With so many of these workers arriving internationally,…

Human labour is a growing expense, with wages subject to legislative increases on a regular basis. Costs associated with overtime, penalty rates, insurance and retirement have motivated packers to switch from manual labour to smart equipment solutions. Sourcing labour becomes an increasingly arduous task and retaining it in this competitive market is equally difficult. Current…