As the Riverina looks to the busy harvest seasons of spring and summer, the government is pushing to bring overseas seasonal workers back into the country.
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The federal government announced late last week it would allow targeted recruitment under a re-opening of the Pacific Labour Scheme and Seasonal Worker Program.
Federal agriculture minister David Littleproud said he was encouraging state governments to take advantage of the scheme to address workforce shortages during the busy harvest period.
Griffith Citrus Growers Association secretary Vito Mancini said there was a growing "nervousness" among fruit growers, with high demand for workers anticipated across spring and summer.
"At the moment we've been able to manage it quite well during this winter, but demand's going to really pick up from September onward and I think that's where industry starts to get a bit nervous," he said.
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Mr Mancini said the combination of reduced migrant and backpacker workers along with border restrictions that could leave potential workers stuck in Victoria were cause for concern.
While the NSW government this week launched a one-stop resource for Australians looking for farm work, Mr Mancini said he was unsure how successful campaigns to attract workers from the cities would be.
"They've had the opportunity to come here for many years and whilst there's things like Jobseeker out there, it's not super attractive to go deal with the flies and the dirt," he said.
"It's going to be a challenge to see how many people get recruited from those."
He said the small, family businesses that made up the majority of the region's citrus industry would likely find it difficult to directly benefit from overseas seasonal worker schemes, but the benefit to the industry overall would have flow-on effects.
"It's not easy to access that sort of labour when you're a smaller farm because under the rules you need to guarantee a fair bit of work," Mr Mancini said.
"For the larger corporations and the larger enterprises out there I think it'll become very attractive, and if they have that pool of labour it frees up other pools of labour for the smaller farmers which will be great.
"As long as there's a way we can manage the two week quarantine when they get here, if there's a way we can share the costs or it doesn't burden the industry too much, I think it'll be a good way to get the harvest out and fruit onto people's plates."
