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Kiwifruit Picking Jobs

Are you ready to join New Zealand’s favourite seasonal work?

Kiwifruit Picking Jobs Available starting in Mid-March!

We are hiring hard-working people who are interested in joining all the best the kiwifruit industry has to offer in this picking season!

Why join the Kiwifruit Picking Season with us?

Kiwifruit Picking Jobs
Watch Our Promo Video

Join the Kiwifruit Picking Season!

How does Kiwifruit Picking
Payment per bin works?

Have you ever had doubt about how the payment per bin works?

We’ve put together a simple example below, considering a person who works 8 hours per day, for a full 5 days week with Garcia Contracting.

Meet John

John applied to work with Garcia during the Kiwifruit picking  Season.

As soon as John got hired, he has been assigned to a group of workers who will work together. John’s group now has 10 people in it.

Kiwifruit-bin3

This is a 680 Liters Bin

John and his team will now  start picking the kiwifruit. Their mission is to fill bins like these ones as fast as possible.

For every full bin of Kiwifruit Gold, John and his team will split between them $26, gross payment.

John and his team work is fantastic, they are able to fill 12 bins in an hour!

This means John and everyone else on his team are earning $31.20 gross payment per hour.

Time for a rest

John and his team are entitled for two 10 minutes paid rest breaks.

Considering their average rate of $31.20 per hour, that mean an extra $7.80 for them on that day.

End of the week!

At the end of the week, Garcia will calculate how many days and hours John worked, and how many full bins he and his team were able to fill in total.

Time to get paid

On the next Friday, the week after he worked, Garcia will process John’s payment.

John was a very motivated worker this week. His take home pay was $1389,96 before taxes!

In the example above, John performed quite well. Here is the breakdown of how his earnings were calculated:

$31.20/h x 40 hours a week=$1,248 + $7.80 x 5 (Paid Rest). Total = $1,287

On top of the total, we add 8% holiday pay (paid to all workers). Coming to a total of $1,389.96, or $34.74/h before taxes!

Kiwifruit Picking Jobs

Every year, New Zealand exports over 600.000 tonnes of the worldwide famous kiwifruit.

All of this produce must be hand-picked by workers at orchards around the country. This means there are many opportunities around New Zealand for people keen to join the industry and help out during the harvest period.

If you are looking for kiwifruit picking jobs, Bay of Plenty is the perfect location, and Garcia Contracting is the perfect company to work for. Our experienced team will guide you through the process and help you achieve your maximum potential, increasing the amount of bins you and your team manage to fill during the day – ultimately increasing your pay rate.

We welcome all nationalities! No experience? No problem! 

We are here to help you get started in the kiwifruit industry, and before you realise, you will be a professional kiwifruit picker!

Why Garcia Contracting?

Operating since 2011, we pride ourselves to be one of the longest living contracting services provider in the Bay of Plenty.

At Garcia, we value our people. Our team is made of people from all around the world, and diversity is part of who we are.

We do our best to deliver a high standard service to our customers while maintaining our compliance, legal obligations and strong Health & Safety measures to provide the best work environment to our staff.

With Garcia Contracting you can have the peace of mind you will get paid exactly what we agree upon signing the contract, all following New Zealand’s legislation. We believe all employee’s legal rights should be respected, and we are proud to say we make this our standard process.

We provide full training, industry standard rates and immediate start for all those hard-workers out there who are looking forward to join the kiwifruit industry!

Frequently Asked Questions

Kiwifruit picking seasons will start in mid-March of every year.

Kiwifruit picking, as an industry standard, is paid per full bin (piece rate), instead of the regular hourly rate. This means the faster you and your team fill up kiwifruit bins, the more will be your take home pay over that day. 

For this reason, it is quite hard to tell exactly how much someone can make on an hourly basis. As a reference, our faster teams are able to make around $36.70 per hour, while our average teams make around $28.60/h before taxes (including 8% holiday pay).

However, we comply with New Zealand’s legislation. If, for some reason, you don’t reach the threshold to make more money, we will pay you $22.75 per hour + 8% holiday pay.

When you get to the orchard, our coordinators will assign you to a team of around 10 people. Your team will then start picking and filling the same bin. Once a bin is full, your team will ‘split’ the bin’s ‘profit’ and start filling the next one. That’s why team work is very important, the faster your team fills the bins, the more you will make. As a reference, our slowest teams are able to fill 7-8 bins per hour, while our fastest teams are able to fill around 17 bins per hour.

Starting and finishing hours may vary due to weather or other factors. A regular kiwifruit picking day starts at 7.30-8am and goes until 5-5.30pm. There are some occasions when we can work during the night, but these will be communicated and will be optional for those who are keen to work extra hours.

Unfortunately the Kiwifruit tree is very sensitive. During rainy days, if we do any maintenance work on the plant, there is a high-risk of the plant getting a disease that will eventually kill it, compromising next year’s crop. For this reason, we never work on rainy days.

Your contract will be on a casual basis. What makes it very flexible for both of us. That means when there is work available, we will contact you. At that stage you can tell us if you will be attending to work on that day, and/or for how long you will work. You can find more information about casual employment contracts at this link: https://www.employment.govt.nz/starting-employment/who-is-an-employee/types-of-employee/#scrollto-casual-employees

You don’t necessarily have to, but since the payment is per full bin and you will have a bag that can weight up to 20kg strapped to your torso, we believe being fit will help you throughout the day.

Yes! That’s what makes kiwifruit picking fun! You can all come together, be part of the same team and who knows, even run a challenge between you to see who picks faster!

We have work throughout the Bay of Plenty region, but the orchards are mainly located in Katikati, Te Puke, Te Puna, Waihi, Maketu and Paengaroa. The locations can vary from day to day. As soon as our clients tell us where we’ll be working, we’ll let you know. This usually happens the night before work, or at latest very early in the morning.

We can organize vans or car pooling if you don’t have personal transport. Conditions apply, depending on where you are located.

No, but we have a few partners who can provide accommodation for you. Please visit https://garciacontracting.co.nz/accommodations/ to find more details.

Orchards are often quite far from the towns, so we recommend you bring enough food and at least 1-2 liters of water to drink during the day. You can wear any clothes, but we recommend you wear comfortable and light clothes. The job is physically demanding, so you will get sweaty during the day. Covered shoes is a must, to avoid any Health & Safety issues. We also recommend you bring Sunscreen.

No. Kiwifruit picking work is not eligible to provide you with a work visa, according to New Zealand Immigration. Be aware if any contractor promises you a work visa, and always seek immigration advice or call Immigration New Zealand if you have any questions. Garcia is an SSE certificated company. Therefore, SSE visas are the only type we are able to assist you with.

Of course! The Kiwifruit industry is a very democratic, there is space for everyone, and kiwis are more than welcome to join us.

Yes, unfortunately it is well known that some kiwifruit contractors may not be compliant with New Zealand legislation, and can even get away without giving employees what is their rights. You can rest assured Garcia Contracting complies with all industry standards and New Zealand legislation. We believe in respecting our worker’s rights and providing a great work environment for them.

APPLICATIONS CLOSED

This season is now over and applications are closed.

You can join our waiting list to get notified when new job positions are open or, apply to work in the current season.

Kiwifruit Picking Job Application

Please fill the form below and our team will contact you as soon as we start the hiring process.

We look forward to working with you in this Kiwifruit Picking Season!

Picking Season

Waiting List

Please leave your details below and our team will contact you as soon as the Picking Season starts once again and new job positions become available.