Fruit growers are angry about delays to a pilot Pacific Islander guest worker program, saying a chronic shortage of pickers and packers is costing them money.
Under the plan, announced by the Federal Government last August, up to 2500 workers from Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Tonga and Vanuatu would get seven-month visas to work in orchards in Swan Hill and Griffith over the next three years.
The first intake of Pacific Islanders was supposed to arrive at the beginning of the picking season in December but fruit growers are yet to receive a single worker.
Leon Caccaviello, who manages a citrus, wine grapes and stone fruit property near Swan Hill, said he would love to hire 30 Pacific Islanders.
"I don't understand why it is so God-damn hard — it's government bureaucratic bloody red tape."
Mr Caccaviello said he had been forced to rely on backpackers.
He said Tongans were honest, religious people who were willing to learn and work hard to support their families and, unlike backpackers, were not in Australia "just to drink".
"People in the city want the best produce they can find, they want their fruit to look like it has been hand-painted.
"That only comes from people who know what they are doing."
Mr Caccaviello said he had an extra 162 hectares available for planting, but was stymied by the lack of labour.
"The export markets are there, but we just don't have the manpower — that's the killer," he said.
Summerfruit Australia chairman Ian McAlister said fruit growers had been left "waiting and waiting".
"The Government says something is going to happen and then the bureaucrats take over and it all goes pear-shaped," he said.
"Our stone fruit season is three-quarters over … by the time they get the workers here, there will be no work for them."
The Pacific Islander trial is modelled on a scheme in New Zealand.
A 22pc boost to New Zealand's strawberry crop in 2007 was attributed to Tongan labour.
Opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone accused the Government of "inefficiency, bungling and a lack of ministerial oversight".
"They had the New Zealand model to simply replicate; it's not as if this is rocket science," Ms Stone said.
"The Rudd Government sold this pilot as support for our Pacific neighbours hard hit by climate change and economic downturn. These nations need an explanation."
The National Farmers Federation, which proposed the Pacific Island scheme three years ago, has estimated the horticulture industry is short of 22,000 workers each season, leaving $700 million of produce to rot each year.
Chief executive Ben Fargher said: "We need to make sure all the I's are dotted and the T's crossed and then we can try to get the program expanded over time."
A spokeswoman for Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard said the first group of up to 100 Pacific workers was expected to be recruited later this month.
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