Lauren Roberts, Rural Reporter – Territory mango farmers are flying to Timor in a desperate attempt to recruit workers ahead of a potential labour crisis.
NT Mango Industry Association president Leo Skliros said Ian Quinn and Saramat 'Tou' Ruchkaew from Tou's Garden were flying to Timor to recruit workers through the Federal Government's Seasonal Worker Program.
"They're going to be spending $50 grand in advance." he said. "They have to fork out the airfares for 30 people."
Mr Skliros said the idea of the scheme was good, but it had "too much red tape", and lengthy approval delays. Mr Skliros said mango farmers shouldn't have to go to "that degree of trouble" to recruit workers.
"It's a very intense season, the fruits going to come off in a very short period of time," he said. "The majority of fruit will come off at the next four or five weeks."
Minister for Primary Industries Ken Vowles said the NT mango season would reach its height in the coming few weeks. "This is when we'll know if there are enough seasonal workers," he said.
"The uncertainty of the backpacker tax has already had a detrimental impact on Territory businesses. What we do know is the backpacker application numbers are lower than previous years and lower than what is required. If there aren't enough pickers to pick fruit then there will be a loss of harvest which will have a devastating impact."
Mr Vowles said the NT Agricultural Industry heavily relied on seasonal workers, and backpackers represented 85 per cent of agricultural labour.
"The Seasonal Worker Program is designed as a Foreign Aid program with participants encouraged to send earnings back to their home country," he said. "There are a small amount of farmers in NT that are approved through this program."