Call for subsidised horticulture

Press, 27 October 1982, Page 24

Call for subsidised horticulture

Parliamentary reporter A very strong case existed for subsidising horticultural growers, including for transport and accommodation, to provide employment for tertiary students looking for work in the long- vacation, and the unemployed, said the chairman of the Government task force on youth unemployment, Mr G. W. F. Thompson. He said there was a staggering difference between the relative costs of subsidising 1 a job in the private sector compared with one in the public sector.

It cost SI4M a year to support 17,000 people in the private sector, or $5O a week a person for six months; in public sector job creation (such as the P.E.P. scheme) the 17,000 would cost the Government SBSM, six times as much, said Mr Thompson. He said the employment significance of horticulture was substantial. The industry employed 15,000 people and if present rates of growth continued, 50,000 would be needed by 1990. All areas of production and harvesting would need more labour—picking, grading, packing, quality control,

cool storage, winter and summer pruning. and orchard maintenance. The biggest demand would be for casual staff for picking. Kiwifruit and brambles, which were not picked automatically, had the biggest requirement, Mr Thompson said. It had been estimated that 13,000 casual and part-time workers would be needed for kiwifruit and 20,000 for the brambles harvest. This had major implications about where the labour would come from, he said. It reinforced the need for those seeking work to be mobile.