Campaign calls for help

• Published date: 04 November 2021
• Publication title: Central Otago News

The Spare Room, Spare Time campaign encourages locals to invite out-of-town friends and whanau to have a summer working holiday in the region’s many vineyards, orchards or market gardens, to ease predicted seasonal labour shortage.

At the peak of demand, in December and January, Central Otago requires approximately 6000 seasonal workers to assist in the horticulture and viticulture sectors for the summer season. These staff would normally be sourced through the Government-backed Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, international backpackers and, to a lesser extent, local youth, but COVID-19 restrictions mean for a second summer workers are harder to come by.

Central Otago District Council economic development manager Nick Lanham said they were calling on Central Otago locals to ‘‘invite your friends and family to come and experience a Central Otago summer working holiday’’.

‘‘Make up that spare bed and offer to put them up.’’

As part of the campaign, the council will be producing ‘‘Wish you were here’’ postcards, which will be available at libraries, i-SITEs and service centres for people to send to friends and family with an invite to come to stay. The campaign also invites...