Record pick relied on Vanuatu workers – Darlene & Brad Fankhauser

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2021 edition of AFG, available online here.

Brad & Darlene Fankhauser, Vic

A winning combination of workers from Vanuatu on Zucal automated machines from Italy helped Fankhauser Apples to pick a record 4600 bins last summer, despite the critical labour shortage.

It’s the third year that Darlene and Brad Fankhauser have sourced labour through the Seasonal Worker Programme via the hire company Connect Group, to pick 35ha of apples at Drouin, 90km east of Melbourne.

“Normally we have about 40 workers but this year we only had the 16 Ni-Vanuatu men plus three locals who were here only briefly, and we picked 400 more bins than we’ve ever done before,” says Darlene.

“Packing isn’t a problem, but locals unfortunately don’t want to pick. We pay all new casuals on an hourly rate for the first week to ensure the picking is done safely and correctly before they go on piece rates, but we found a lot of them only lasted two to three days.

“We pay the Ni-Vans per hour because they pick it up so fast. They turn up on time, leave on time and go the extra mile because they want to see the business doing well. They get everything done to the best of their ability and they send money home, to buy fishing boats and build churches for local communities.”

This year the Fankhausers have bought an old farmhouse nearby that they’re renovating to provide accommodation for the Pacific workers, with room for growing vegetables and a nearby river to fish.

The Fankhausers normally pay half the $1000 airfare for each Ni-Vanuatu worker but this year will also be expected to cover Covid-19 quarantine costs of $2500 per person.

In the past two years they’ve invested in two automated Zucal machines that have made picking more efficient and more attractive to workers. Six people on a single machine can pick up to 50 standard bins in eight hours, but Darlene says the orchard has to be planted to enable platform access.

“The platforms have adjustable arms and you’re picking straight onto the platform so it makes it easier, but we still need more people because we still have some of the old original orchard producing well that the platforms can’t access,” says Darlene.

Read more labour stories from around the country here.