Yvonne Smith with packing shed manager Ian Oosthuizen at her Bowhill property, east of Adelaide. She says she has had to recruit from overseas for skilled workers.
Onion and carrot grower Yvonne Smith knows how hard it is to find highly skilled workers.
Ms Smith, 48, grows 85ha of onions and 30ha of carrots with her husband at Bowhill, on the Murray River east of Adelaide.
The couple would like to expand their production, but the main factor slowing them down is a shortage of skilled help.
Ms Smith said the dearth of local workers had prompted her to recruit from overseas, with two of the couple’s full-time employees having permanently migrated from South Africa under the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.
“We, of course, looked locally first,” she said. “But, failing that, we started to look overseas. There just aren’t enough people in Australia that want to work on farms.”
A study by the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency published yesterday found a dire shortage of skilled workers within the agricultural and food sector.
The AWPA food and beverage workforce study made 13 recommendations, finding there was a desperate need for a single national co-ordinating body representing industry, government, employee representatives and the tertiary education sector to provide leadership on skills and workforce development across the agrifood supply chain.
National Farmers Federation chief executive Matt Linnegar welcomed the report, which the NFF helped develop, saying it added weight to its calls for collaboration across the education and agricultural industries to build a sustainable skilled workforce.
Mr Linnegar said one of the NFF’s key concerns was a lack of robust data around the workforce-development needs of agriculture, and he hoped that a new national co-ordinating body would work to build a workforce profile for the sector so solutions could be found to skill shortages.
Ms Smith said she was looking overseas again to fill another farm role, having failed to find someone locally.
“One thing I’m concerned about is that some of the skills we need on farms aren’t met by the skilled migration list. We need someone who’s had a lot of experience farming, who has those skills, not necessarily someone who has a qualification on paper, but it’s very difficult to prove to the Immigration Department that someone has those skills.”
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Craig Hill Media and Consulting 
This is AP from sydney and i am in sydney since 2009 ,i am going to back another country after 4 month because of very hard life for horticultural and agricultural people by immigration rule.but am bit concern about the news you have posted
.i have completed my diploma in Horticulture from TAFE NSW Australia in 2011, those skills are completed related in farm and production sector of agriculture and also i have worked experience,i worked as a bush regenerator in council and also i have plenty experience working as a plant producer in nursery and horticulturist in sydney.
BUT I HAVE NO ANY CLEAR( EASY) WAY TO STAY AND WORK CONFIDENTLY AND PERMANENTLY IN AUSTRALIA AS A PLANT PRODUCER OR HORTICULTURIST EVEN I HAVE AUSTRALIAN QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE
.I have got plenty of jobs offer from council and private company but because of resident card( i am not permanent resident of Australia ) employer are very hesitate and fell very hard to provide me job even they find me very good on the job field.
AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION HAVE NO ANY CLEAR VISION AND SUITABLE RULE FOR PEOPLE LIKE us. .
Posted by Anil | October 28, 2013, 23:47