The Bay of Plenty kiwifruit industry was short 1200 workers in May in its orchards and packhouses.

The horticulture industry needs to identify and clean-up its bad employers if it is to attract workers, Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Mike Chapman says.

"We have got to protect our reputation," Chapman told HortNZ's annual conference in Christchurch.

Industry figures show horticulture had a labour shortfall of 6000 in 2016. "The next report, I can confidently say will show an even greater gap," he said.

In May, a seasonal labour shortage for the Bay of Plenty kiwifruit industry was declared by the Ministry of Social Development, following an urgent need to fill 1200 vacancies for its harvest and packing.

READ MORE:

* Kiwifruit industry runs out of workers as labour shortage declared

* Urgent call for fruit-pickers in Hawke's Bay saw just 14 people express an interest

* Robotics could be answer to worldwide labour shortages in cropping industry

The shortage was blamed on a larger harvest coupled with a deficit of backpacker and international student workers. A similar declaration was made for Hawkes Bay fruit pickers in March and in Tasman in April.

SUPPLIED Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Mike Chapman says the biggest proportion of its workforce continues to be New Zealanders.

"We have a lot of employers in horticulture that are not playing the game as they should. They will pull all of us down. They could pull the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme down. We have to unite to deal with them," Chapman said.

People were urged to identify employers that should be visited by HortNZ's national seasonal labour co-ordinator, Jerf van Beek, for educating on good employment practice.

Despite a reliance on overseas workers, particularly through the RSE scheme, which allows Pacific Islanders to work in New Zealand on a seasonal basis, the biggest proportion of horticulture's workforce continued to be New Zealanders.

"Part of the solution to our worker shortage is Kiwis. There are 100,000 jobless in New Zealand and we have to get these people off the couch," Chapman said.

"If we are going to get an extra 6000 workers, we are going to have to get out there, source them and put them into work."

SUPPLIED A robotic apple packer developed by Robotics Plus removes the need to find workers to do mundane work.

Of horticulture's workforce, 52 per cent were New Zealanders and 31 per cent RSE workers. Only 13 per cent were backpackers and travellers "so these are not as essential as many people believe".

New Zealand permanent staff worked an average 38.4 weeks a year, RSE workers 25.3 weeks, and those on a working holiday 5.9 weeks.

Chapman said it was appalling that an industry the size of horticulture, which generated $6 billion in returns, had no apprentice programme or degree course. "There is no pathway for people to go forward on."

Horticulture launched an apprenticeship programme at the conference and a horticulture degree and short course was planned to start at Massey University next year.

HortNZ opposed Government moves to accelerate increases to the minimum wage, lifting it to $20 an hour by 2020.

"This means an $1.75 an hour increase for the next two years. We will be advocating to Government that they don't do it as it is counterproductive to growth," said Chapman.

Freshpac Systems general manager Jamie Lunam said horticulture could potentially push dairy out of its top export spot, but it first needed to deal with staffing issues, including the skills needed for greater use of automation.

The seasonality of work was an issue with 30,000 people needed for a couple of months every year.

"We are not just competing for seasonal labour, but for IT skills. At present we are concentrating on bringing horticultural-minded people into the industry and that needs to shift quite significantly."

While automation technology was developing all the time, everything a grower needed to fully automate a packing line already existed, said Lunam.

"You can even use autonomous vehicles to get produce into a coolstore."

A Tauranga company, Robotics Plus, had commercialised a robotic apple packer, which it had trialled in Nelson and planned to market in the United States.

The bruise-free robotic packers had proven themselves at a Nelson packhouse as being faster, more accurate and hygienic and by removing a repetitive and mundane task for workers, Lunam said.