Raspberries

Paradise Fruits Enterprise Pty Ltd is a raspberry producer based at Elimbah near Caboolture, south-east Queensland. It produces raspberries 12 months of the year with peak harvest periods between May and July and September and October. Up to 80 seasonal workers recruited under the Pacific Island Labour Mobility Scheme are employed during the peaks.

Paradise Fruits was already looking at AgPick to create efficiencies and improve record keeping in early 2020 when the global pandemic struck – and the need for subsequent COVID-safe protocols – accelerated its implementation.

Unprecedented protocols required growers to isolate teams or individuals in the event of an outbreak to continue harvesting. Within two weeks, the system was tracking workers’ attendance and their location, providing peace of mind to owners Paul and Vivien Duala during one of the most critical and uncertain times in farming in recent years.

The next challenge came in early 2022 when a variation to the Horticulture Award required growers to comply with piece-rate payment rules. This resulted in the addition of AgPick’s piece-rate calculator to the app to ensure accurate payment. By 2023, with the pandemic in the background, new pressures included rising labour and farm costs and supply chain delays.

“Our first objective was a system that was simple and straight-forward and would help us record individual picker activity and performance,” she says.

“AgPick records when pickers clock on and off, what they pick and where they are with real-time data – this was selling point for us. Before that, we would have to go into the paddock to see what was happening and record it manually.

“We’d been using AgPick system effectively for a few years before the piece-rate rules came into effect and that became our next objective. The addition of AgPick’s simple piece-rate calculator – which calculates wages and top-ups that pickers are due – has made it so much easier to manage payments.

“Wages are the biggest killer on the farm and farmers need to be able to analyse and take action on productivity.

“With farming costs continuing to go through the roof, we, like all farmers, are under pressure to find efficiencies. AgPick has helped us enormously.”

For Paradise Fruits, the time and labour-saving efficiencies created by AgPick since 2020, have eased the extraordinary burdens experienced across the business and wider industry.

“Reporting has never been easier for us. The app tells how much has been picked, where it is and how each picker has performed,” she says.

“Before the piece-rate calculator was in place, we’d have to download a CSV file and work methodically through the data to figure out who picked what. With a soft fruit crop susceptible to weather, it can also help us identify quality issues and how that impacts on picker performance.

“Our time spent calculating payments is now minimal. AgPick has probably saved us three hours of work a day – a huge benefit.

“We can easily see how pickers performed during the day and address any issues that require monitoring with supervisors. And it’s easier than ever to calculate the 15 per cent top-up above the award wage for productive pickers.

“There’s no doubt with AgPick in place, it has saved us hiring two full-time casual workers throughout the year.”

For the Paradise team, the everyday use app is hard to fault.

“The displays are bright and easy to read. Even if we can’t always see the screen in the bright sunshine, we simply move to another area.

“Nothing is ever lost as it’s all backed up and we can message AgPick support any time if there’s an issue.

“The AgPick team has always been amazing and efficient – they are always there for us,” she says.