ONE of Australia’s largest salad vegetable growers, Bulmer Farms, Lindenow, Victoria has initiated innovative employment schemes to ensure a steady supply of skilled farm workers.
Each year the multi-generation family farm offers a farm management traineeship to a local student.
At the same time, they have built up a strong cohort of overseas and local farm workers to support the agribusiness.
Harvest season in Lindenow sees a multicultural mix of farm workers arrive from Afghanistan, New Zealand, East Timor, Iran, Taiwan (People’s Republic of China) and Australia.
“We are proud to offer work to refugees from war-ravaged countries like Afghanistan, who hope for a more prosperous life, to those from East Timorese with very high unemployment rates,” managing director Andrew Bulmer said.
A composite of farms in several locations along the Mitchell River Valley, covering 380 hectares, Bulmer Farms specialises in growing salad mix for the domestic fresh food markets and local processors in Sydney and Melbourne, and baby broccoli for growing export markets.
During peak harvest time (November to April), picking and packing occurs 24 hours, seven days a week.
“It means we require many flexible, farm-ready workers who enjoy working outdoors irrespective of weather or in the cool room,” Mr Bulmer said.
In recent years, they have gone in-country to recruit workers from East Timor, as part of a plan to diversify their cropping model, implemented in the past 12 months, supporting the Seasonal Pacific Worker program.
“I went to East Timor and personally selected five crews of farm workers,” harvest manager Kaine Bulmer said.
The crews work for six months at Lindenow and return home for six months.
Each crews’ employment is staggered throughout the year and they work alongside local employees during the longer harvest and planting seasons.
When they arrive on our farm, they undergo our own, intense, induction; then ongoing training through the course of their employment.
- Andrew Bulmer, managing director, Bulmer Farms
The East Timorese crews have become an integral part of the multicultural mix of staff employed at Bulmer Farms.
In addition, each year Bulmer Farms offers a farm manager apprenticeship to a local student during the harvest season.
“It’s a way of growing our talent pool,” Ms Bulmer said.
“Both initiatives are key features of enhancing the employment brand for the business, the region and the industry.”
The federal government’s Seasonal Worker Program was another source of farm workers for Bulmer Farms and the agribusiness had used the one contractor for many years, reliant on regular government audits to ensure compliance.
“It’s a work in progress but our workforce planning strategy is achievable because of the preparedness of our local Australian workers, from field workers to managers, who welcome co-workers from other cultures and help us tackle language and other issues that arise,” Andrew Bulmer said.
“We employ 60 per cent of our staff through the seasonal worker program, where they undertake an initial induction program, with training in their own language.
“When they arrive on our farm, they undergo our own, intense, induction; then ongoing training through the course of their employment.
“We have toolbox meetings every fortnight and that also involves any additional training that’s been identified.”
Mr Bulmer, who is also president of the East Gippsland Food Cluster, said there were more opportunities for diversifying employment, for the industry across the entire eastern region.
“There’s potential for the Cluster to be a host employment provider, as more agribusinesses across the region take up seasonal Pacific workers,” he said.
“It is something we are currently exploring.”
