The Alliance Group plant in Lorneville, near Invercargill.

Southland will become a temporary home to 100 more migrant workers to deal with staff shortages during the peak meat processing season.

Alliance Group has confirmed it's received approval from Immigration New Zealand to employ seasonal migrant workers for its Lorneville plant.

The meat processing company has received criticism for its decision to hire foreigners in the past, refuting claims that it wasn't investing in Southland workers.

Alliance General people and safety manager Chris Selbie said the company preferred hiring local candidates for its Southland plant if it could.

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There simply weren't enough of them, he said.

"Southland has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and the labour market is only getting tighter. Like many employers in the region, Alliance experiences staff shortage across all areas of our processing operations," Selbie said.

Although its a more expensive option, he said Alliance has had to supplement its workforce with overseas recruitment.

The 100 new foreign workers come from Asia and the Pacific Islands.

They will be in Southland on short-term temporary visas and will be living in accommodation supplied by Alliance Group in Invercargill.

Alliance pay for their recruitment, resettlement and training and Selbie said sourcing workers from other countries was a "last resort".

The company was also granted approval to employ 100 foreign workers at its Lorneville plant in 2019. It got further approval 20 foreigner workers for its Mataura plant in March, 2019.

New Zealand Meat Workers Union Invercargill secretary Gary Davis said he had mixed feelings about the new appointments.

While he understood that there were a lack of skills available in the country, Davis said he was still concerned that Southlanders were missing out on work.

He felt that Alliance Group's hiring criteria was too strict.

This was something the company had addressed in the past.

Selbie told Stuff in 2018 that Alliance had employed almost 84 per cent of all that season's candidates who met the company's pre-employment medical criteria which included passing a drug test.

Many of the roles at the Lorneville plant were physically demanding, he said.

Selbie added that migrant workers made up a very small portion of the company's Southland workforce.

The company employs more than 2500 in the region during its peak processing period between January and March.

Alliance announced a $1 million investment for a new facility at its Lorneville plant in June 2019, adding another 40 jobs.

Fresh adverts for boners, knifehands and labourers were posted on New Zealand online job boards on Wednesday.

"Every season we run extensive local recruitment campaigns and work closely with Work and Income and other government agencies to employ as many locals as possible for our plants before we look to overseas workers," Selbie said.

Kiwis are given the opportunity to complete ITO-accredited training programmes throughout the season, he said.

The fact that Immigration New Zealand has invited the meat processing industry to negotiate one of the first sector agreements is evidence of the labour shortage its facing Selbie said.

Alliance Group has been working with other meat processing companies and the Meat Industry Association to create a workforce strategy to address the issue.

As part of their agreement with Immigration, these organisations will work to reduce the sector's reliance on foreign workers over time.