Story: Market gardens and production nurseries

In times of full employment, New Zealand growers have had difficulty finding enough local workers to plant, weed and harvest their crops. Since 2000 they have become increasingly reliant upon a temporary immigrant labour force to supply seasonal labour. Shinda Singh, pictured here picking lettuce at Patumāhoe, near Pukekohe, was one of a team of mostly Pacific Island immigrant workers working in market gardens in 2006.