In a typical year, cherry farmer Guy Gaeta's primary concerns in the weeks leading up to harvest are weather events like hail and frost.

But with his cherry trees just beginning to bloom, the 63-year-old is for the first time losing sleep over whether he'll be able to get the fruit off the trees planted across the rolling hills of his 13-hectare family-run farm.

"We really need backpackers," Gaeta told Kyodo News from his property in Orange, a small city in regional New South Wales.

"Farmers are used to losing a crop. We lose them many times to hail, to rain, to frost. But to lose perfectly good cherries because you can't pick them, it's unprecedented. It will be really straining on peoples' mental health."

Working holidaymakers, predominantly young backpackers from Europe and Asia, and seasonal workers from the Pacific islands are the backbone of Australia's horticulture industry.

For Gaeta, up to 90 percent of his 50-70 strong workforce is made up of working holidaymakers.

However, as the coronavirus pandemic took hold earlier in the year, many travelers returned home. Simultaneously, a near-blanket ban on international arrivals to Australia, in place since March, has prevented newly granted visa holders from entering the country.

Figures from the Australian government show an almost 37 percent decrease in the number of working holiday visa holders in Australia, from roughly 135,000 in June 2019 to over 85,000 in June 2020.

With its good weather and safe reputation, Australia is one of the most popular destinations for Japanese working holidaymakers, and Japan is the fifth-most-common country of origin for Australia's working holiday visa holders.

But Japanese working holidaymakers have also decreased by almost 28 percent, down to 8,600, over the past 12 months.

Queensland strawberry farmer Adrian Schultz told Kyodo News that roughly 30 percent of his workers are Japanese in a normal year. However, when case numbers in Australia began to rise, families in Japan requested that their children come home.

"Because of the Japanese attitude to their work, it's hard (to have fewer of them on the farm)," Schultz, 53, said in a telephone interview, adding that many Japanese returned to work on his farm for multiple harvests.

"They're very loyal, they work hard...If we were to have no Japanese here at all, I would miss that."

While his small farm has not been too badly affected, Schultz says he knows of several other farms that have already removed large swathes of strawberry crops because they can't find enough pickers.

But for orchardists like Gaeta, removing or choosing not to plant a crop is not an option, and instead, they may be forced to walk away from trees full of extremely valuable fruit.

"It's heartbreaking," said Gaeta's wife, Simonetta, who compared growing cherries to raising a child.

Read also: Algeria named 2020's best country for backpacking

The pandemic has also hit urban Australia, with unemployment rising to almost 7 percent. In the wake of increased joblessness, workers unions have called on farmers to hire more local labor.

However, both Schultz and Gaeta said Australians are historically reluctant to work on the farms and are not as motivated as the internationals.

Both men want to see the government relax travel restrictions for working holidaymakers and allow travelers to self-isolate on a farm.

The Gaeta family has already purchased personal protective equipment like face masks, and hand sanitizer in the event international workers are allowed to come to the farm.

Despite the bleak outlook, Gaeta's cautious optimism extends to the upcoming cherry season.

"I think we'll be right...Backpackers know that picking cherries is very lucrative for them. We won't have anyone that earns under $200 a day...(and) they can earn up to $300-$350 a day," he says, explaining that pickers are paid a piece rate for the amount of fruit picked each day.

That is not always the case, however, with unions and others arguing the working holiday visa scheme amounts to a source of cheap labor which allows unscrupulous businesses to pay below the Australian minimum wage, a factor that also makes the work unappealing to locals.

A 2017 University of New South Wales national survey of temporary workers in Australia found underpayment was "widespread" in fruit and vegetable picking work, with almost one-third of people surveyed earning $10 an hour or less, around half the country's legal minimum wage.

Despite paying his workers well, Gaeta worries that the pool of remaining holidaymakers will continue to shrink as peoples' visas expire, and the borders remain closed.

"If we get through this year, it's going to be a disaster next year," he said.

And he urged backpackers not to give up on traveling to Australia again one day.

"We need you."

Popular

Volcano erupts in North Sulawesi, hundreds evacuated

Dubai roads, airport reel from floods after record rains

Ramadan boosts consumer confidence, retail sales