Seasonal worker program extended

A program linking short-staffed farmers with Pacific island workers will now include livestock and grain producers.

A seasonal worker picks Riesling grapes at Surveyor's Hill vineyard outside Canberra, Thursday, March 12, 2015. Source: AAP

Australian livestock and grain producers will have access to affordable labour under an expansion to the seasonal worker program.

The federal agriculture and workplace ministers on Monday announced the seasonal worker program, which links workers from Pacific island countries to short-staffed farmers, would be expanded to include all agricultural producers to ease labour shortages in the industry.

"This is good news for Australian farming enterprises that now have more options for seasonal labour and can better plan for their harvests and other busy periods with much greater certainty," Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said in a statement.