The recently appointed leader of Chilean fruit grower association Fedefruta has called on legislators to learn from the success of migrant labor schemes in Australia and New Zealand.

Fedefruta president Ramón Achurra

In a column written for our Spanish-language sister publication Portalfruticola.com, Fedefruta chief Ramón Achurra highlighted how even though Chilean companies were allowed to have 15% non-Chilean staff, most growers did not reach that level.

He noted this was even though Chilean growers had found foreign workers to be hard-working, professional, well educated and highly productive.

"This obstacle is due to a lack of appropriate immigration legislation to allow the arrival of people from other countries to perform seasonal jobs in the country, whether they be Peruvians, Bolivians, Colombians, Venezuelans or from other neighboring countries," Achurra said.

In contrast, New Zealand boasts an effective Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme and Australia's horticulture sector has a heavy dependence on backpacker workers.

"That's why it's fundamental to look to countries like New Zealand and Australia, competitors of ours, which have very competent legislations for people to go to those places with the appropriate permits to enter and perform certain jobs with the commitment of course that after some months they will go back to their countries," he said.

"And not just that, but these immigration laws regulate systems in terms of rooms, accomodation, food and reasonable medical insurance during the worker's stay."

The industry veteran's comments came as a series of labor reforms go to Chile's Constitutional Court.

Chile has a labor shortage brought on by a copper mining boom, which although subsided has still enticed workers away from agriculture.

Not taking into account contracts and additional benefits, the minimum wage for a Chilean farmworker is significantly less than their counterparts in Australia and New Zealand.

While an adjusted minimum weekly wage for a level 1 horticultural farmworker in Australia would stand at US$472 and the rate would be US$395 in New Zealand, Chile's minimum weekly wage is around US$91.

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