The government has re-invented its Back to Work in Agriculture Scheme to entice fruit pickers to the regions amid a critical shortage of workers.

There are reports it has come at a huge cost to the agriculture industry.

Richard Shannon, the advocacy and policy manager at Growcom, said he didn’t expect consumers would cop huge price hikes in supermarkets.

“We haven’t probably seen the price increases we might have expected,” he told Scott Emerson.

“It’s been quite interesting even from an industry body perspective, the lack of effect on prices it suggests perhaps growers have been innovative, they’ve done different things on farms to attract and retain workers, we certainly dipped into different cohorts, different parts of the Queensland community to find workers.

“Perhaps in our industry we’ve got a bit of over-production, so we’ve become much more efficient in our production.”

Press PLAY below to hear more about how the new scheme will work

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