Fruit Farm Extortion.

[surfingthoughts]

I am currently backpacking in australlia and like most backpackers I am doing farm work which can be great and I have made good money in the past but there is also a large darker side to the industry. Before beginning my tale of woe let me start by painting a picture.

 

For most countries to get a working visa in Australia it is easy for the first year, to get the second year you need to have done atleast 3 months of rural work which mostly consists of farm working and packing of fruit veg and meat. Only tax paying farms will give visa days as your name has to go through their books for you to be able to get them signed off. Many farms will use contractors to lessen their paper work and reduce their cost but contractors take their cut which is fair enough but like farmers they don't always put everything through the books. The minimum wage in australlia is rediculesly high in comparison to other countries (and like all minimum wages counter productive) this means that allot of farm work is peice rate as it's easier to say we did less hours and pay us less when people are on contract.

 

Farm work particularly fruit picking and vegetables still has an suprisingly large amount of manual physical labour let's take vineyards as example I have done many of these jobs:

 

Fruit dropping - cutting out the smaller bunches of grapes of fruit that will spoil the wine as they won't be ready in time for picking - normally hourly.

 

Picking - largely done by hand although there are machines that can be used on older vines but these are rarely used from what I have seen - normally payed contract.

 

Leaf plucking - done by hand to expose the grapes to sunlight to help them ripen but not too much to scotch them - normally hourly.

 

Prunning - cutting the vines into the right shape to produce good grapes in good quantities without damaging the vine - high skilled usually payed hourly but contract is becoming more popular (still the pay is usually fair).

 

Bucket boy - payed hourly yes usually given to boys highly desirable job for backpackers much better pay then picking. Lifting 10kg buckets of grapes of the floor and into a trailer taking the pickets ticket out so the pickers get payed for what they do.

 

Wire lifting - lifting the wires up as the vine grows to help support it quite physical usually payed contract but sometimes hourley. Can be done by machine for the older vines but usually not

 

Netting - dragging nets by hand from a tractor in the middle that moves slowly to stop birds eating the grapes. Very physical usually payed hourley.

 

Those are the ones I remember of the top of my head I had a great time on vineyards earnt good money and due to my hard work ethic I was quickly promoted to bucket boy and fruit dropper instead of picking as that's where the money was - great .

 

Then I moved to apples on contract good money I made $180 Aus on my best day picking around 2.5tons of apples. The contactor didn't give me my visa days and my last couple days pay. We had to live in terrible conditions 2 showers between 25 people and just generally unclean conditions. Still all that is to be expected as a backpacker. In this place I also pruned some peach trees at the low rate of $14aus hourley which was ok.

 

Now the story begins to become darker.

I read an add for prunning peach trees with loppers and secateurs I had done this before and so had the people I was travelling with so we got the job no probem. The agent got good reviews and seemed like a fair guy. We were told by the contractor that the pay would be hourley or better by contract. He owned a large caravan park and we had to stay there to get the work we had to pay a weeks rent $150 each up front (4people in my caravan) and a deposit of $75 each that we need to give a weeks notice for to get back. We all had very little money at this point and I mean very litle all the jobs in the area were either taken or you had to go through a working hostel such as we did.

 

The job is mentally tiring each cut is important it's like a 3d brain training game. For most blisters on hands from the cutting was common luckily I had done it before and thus been through the blister stage with stronger hands physically too. It's hot in the part of australlia I was at plus it was 3 degrees warmer under the big net we worked under. Spider bites were daily as common as a mosquitoe bite luckily nothing too dangerous usually the same symptoms as a mosy bite.

 

Our first day of work we pruned about 40-60 trees each but the pay wasn't hourley or even close to better on contract it was only $1 per tree and we had worked 8hours with only 2 short breaks. We couldnt earn enough to pay rent never mind save money to leave. As we couldn't afford to pay rent they put up the price 2 times $1.3 then $1.5 still we struggled to pay rent and food but that is where the price stayed we were trapped if we didn't get help from back home we would have been stuck there.

 

I'm not saying we need the state to stop this more competition would easily change this but if I didn't get help from home the likely course of action would have been running to the state In one form or another. There are no win no fee companies to help backpackers as this type of thing is all to common but they use the state to get the money. If you found yourself in this position what would you have done with no option of loans ect?

 

Yes I shouldn't have got myself in that position we should always have enough money to leave a job and that is why I am no longer travelling with those people when we move to the next place I will stay a long time I will find a good job earn some money and then do things on my bucket list. Instead of what we had done before struggled in each location finally find a good job and work there only a few weeks before moving on.

[AncapFTW]

Why did you agree to essentially live in a company town if you weren't certain you could make a profit?

 

I've heard people make the argument that without government people would essentially end up being slaves as they had to work for the boss and buy stuff from the boss, so they made no real money.  My first question is always "so why did they agree to it?"

[surfingthoughts]

We went to the new area about a 3day drive away (we want to travel around the whole coast) by recommendation from our old boss in a good job he gave us 3 contacts non of which panned out still the area was full of backpackers and they were all working. The only route to farm work (or even most work) was through a working hostel there are many allot of them full or have no work. We asked what we thought were all the right questions before handing money over but handing money over before work is the only route to work especially in a large group which I going to leave once we leave the area we are getting new jobs soon. Farm work is what we needed for the visa days and is typically the easiest job to get due to cheap backpackers. Yes we left the last place too soon with not enough money and that is why I am going to travel alone now so I can settle down into a good job earn money for a few months then do cool stuff.

 

Like I said we were told the pay was hourley and so it should be for skilled job such as pruning I did 2times the amount of trees the new guys did and I think my trees would produce more fruit and better quality then theirs. They sell these peaches at $3 each supermarkets sell for $5 each they are an expensive variety the farm is the only one in Aus to sell this type they can afford to pay a fair rate. The price has been increased again to $1.7aus but still not enough.

 

I'm not saying we need gov to help me find a job there would be more jobs without gov and the level of competition would slowly get rid of these types of businesses. I'm just asking if you (perhaps stupidly) got in my position would you have ruled out running to the state?

[st434u]

I wouldn't rule out anything. If someone scams you they deserve no respect.

 

That said, it seems to me that any situation where someone is offering you a job and requiring a down payment is likely a scam. The whole reason you want to work for somebody else is because you don't have capital and they do, so you sell your labor to them for the security that they provide to you. If they're demanding that you make a down payment when they should be the ones paying you, it seems to me that most likely they're trying to scam you.

[surfingthoughts]

Your right it felt weird handing over money but here in aus for backpackers its normal because they can't guarantee work they are an agent with a hostel competing against other agents with hostels. They see easy targets called backpackers that are use to being taken advantage of not to mention the language barrier allot of backpackers have. I'm glad someone else came to a similar conclusion about the state though in this example.

[PatrickC]

Wow sorry to hear about your experience. It's interesting, so the problems of backpacker employment still persist in Australia, as they did for me in 92/94. I soon left the rural areas after staying in a hostel with mostly unemployed backpackers. A miserable spectacle of over drinking, boredom and eating crap food (and having it stolen) I remember.

 

The minimum wage was $9.60 back then and still way too much for the most menial of jobs. I was lucky enough to get a few contracts in Sydney. But then I struck gold, by supplying all the pretty girl backpackers roses to sell in the evenings in restaurants and nightclubs. I even had a flower stall on Taylor Square for a while too. Of course self employment didn't get your visa extended, as I later found out myself.

[surfingthoughts]

Thanks Patrick that's equally as interesting for me to hear your exsperiance. I have had some good farm jobs but far too often I am surrounded by big stoners and poverty. Yes things get stolen you know who does it and get even more irritated when they complain about getting their things stollen it's like no one knows 2 wrongs don't make a right. We haven't quite split as a group yet we should all have building work coming up fitting out shops soon but I have allot of changes to make if I'm going to make the most of my travels. I'm already aware that I'm a people pleaser which is why it took me so long to tell the group that I won't be joining them to their next place in their travels. Intresting bunch of people not all bad but I can't be around them right now.

 

Ps think game of thrones is or will be on soon so enjoy .

[PatrickC]

The rural area I had much better luck in and with a much less obnoxious crowd, was in Nimbin on the east coast, inland from Byron Bay, south of Brisbane. The farming projects there were mainly permaculture ones, which made for a lot more variety of work. That said, still plenty of stoner hippies, although personally I find them to be less obnoxious than aggressive drunks.

 

Ps think game of thrones is or will be on soon so enjoy .

 

Just about to settle into the episode right now!

[surfingthoughts]

That's not too far away from me I am near bundy aka bundaberg a few hours from Brisbane behind Fraser Island. Everywhere here you have to go through hostels to get work which makes it a real gamble. Hopefully joining my friends doing building work fitting shops out payed hourly. If that doesn't happen soon I will probably head back to the west coast and prune the vines I have contacts there who treated me well in the past.

 

I get what you mean with the stoners not aggressive but they drag you down I'm living with them and have quit the stuff myself but always get offerd a puff on a joint as its being past plus the drug dealer next door. I'm confident I can avoid it just another thing that could keep me in a rut easy to ignore problems and do nothing with pot. There are few backpackers like myself who don't smoke cigarettes even fewer who will say no to a joint being passed. I could count the boys who don't smoke weed on 2 hands and I've met allot of people in 6months aswell.

 

Your exsperiance with the rose selling sounds interesting was it all cash in hand or done through the books if you don't mind me asking?

[PatrickC]

Your exsperiance with the rose selling sounds interesting was it all cash in hand or done through the books if you don't mind me asking?

 

Well initially, since I was buying the flowers direct from the wholesaler, it was always a cash only transaction. It was only when I opened the flower stall and was hoping to remain in Australia after my visa expired, that I went legit.

 

That said, the girls I were supplying never went legit and it was a tax free income for them. The only hazzards they faced were from the restaurant or nightclub owners or their security. As you can imagine they fared a lot better in that dept compared to a skinny pommie fella.

 

Bear in mind of course when supplying third parties like this. You often can't expect payment up front from them. They pay you after they return or the following day when I resupplied them, which of course have all the obvious problems of being potentially ripped off. Since I lived in the same hostel as them, some of them were already friends by then and any new girls I wouldn't employ until after a weeks stay in the hostel. That way I got a good picture of their character and they got to understand how much money the other girls were making. They could make a lot too. I would also send them out with one of the experienced girls on their first night, so as to get some feedback on their progress. It wasn't perfect, but by then I could afford the occassional loss when one or two of them ripped me off.

[surfingthoughts]

Very ontrapenarial of you I always want to try something like this but I fear the legal side too much wish we lived in a true free market things like this would pop up everywhere. Atleast in australlia you can move from state to state if needs be but all the regs in aus piss me off. I mean bbq having to have a warning sign on them saying that they could be hot just makes me laugh. I've heard aus is worse than France for business regs especially for foreign business.

 

Do you think it could be worth my while in a city speaking to a florist and offer to do what you did on their behalf I mean they would have to take a cut so there would be less money in it but atleast it would go through their books plus it would help some backpackers out. I have exsperiance in sales but would prefer a more managerial role like you seemed to be operating.

 

When I get back to the UK I am going to be setting up a business with 2 friends different sector but doing what you did would look like gold to an investor.

[PatrickC]

Do you think it could be worth my while in a city speaking to a florist and offer to do what you did on their behalf I mean they would have to take a cut so there would be less money in it but atleast it would go through their books plus it would help some backpackers out. I have exsperiance in sales but would prefer a more managerial role like you seemed to be operating.

 

TBH who is ever going to know. In my case all I ever did was travel in a van to a wholesaler, pick up and buy some roses. Take them back to the hostel, wrap them up and wait for the girls to arrive to hand them to them and take payment from them for the previous days sales of flowers. None of this was illegal.

 

The only illegal aspect of this was for the girls. They could probably get the police busting their balls (so to speak) if they were ever caught selling on the street. However, most of their sales (99%) were inside restaurants and nightclubs that they'd already negotiated stepping into. TBH trying to sell flowers like that is way easier for a women I tried it a number of times, but even with all the charm in the world struggled to sell 50% of the amount of flowers of my most successful girl. I had a couple of gay guys that worked the gay clubs mind, but even then the clientelle always seemed more interested in buying from the girls, so go figure. Men are the biggest market to buy these things and for obvious reasons wouldn't you say.

 

If it's taxes you're concerned with, then I'm going to assume any florist that will take you up on your offer to sell flowers in this manner, will expect you to do your own taxes. So just go self employed, in which case you might as well supply them. Just go find a hostel with the hottest looking ladies in them and make your case to them.

[PatrickC]

Of course, you should check for your competition. I mean maybe now there is some company that supplies flowers in a more organised and arranged fashion. I was selling roses at $5 each, having purchased them wholesale for around 50 - 70 cents, with a 15 cent wrapper. Wholesalers will let you buy in quantities of a minimum of 10. So you're not having to shell out for a ridiculous amount on your first try, to find you managed to sell only half or one third of them. Your selling price might be lower now. I doubt it's higher, since rose growing has become more efficient and cheaper since I was there. But you should look out for retail prices locally, so as to get some idea, there is normally a sweet spot which shifts them much quicker, but it's trial and error at first.

 

Anyway find a pretty girl who needs a job, dress fashionably smart and go out together on your first night. Let her do all the talking on the doors, offering her the ocassional supportive comment here and there, so as to appear friendly and socialble. I guarrentee that you both will probably have a whole lot of fun together, which means she will sell more roses.

[surfingthoughts]

Hmm thank you so much you have given me something to think about that's for sure:).