Overseas technicians arrive to fix irrigators

Extra labour has arrived from overseas to help with repairs to almost 800 irrigators damaged by last month's wind storms in Canterbury.

IrrigationNZ chief executive Andrew Curtis said Immigration New Zealand had provided invaluable assistance with fast-tracking the paperwork to allow specialists to be brought in from overseas.

Last week, with short notice, four centre pivot technicians arrived from South Africa, to work for Ashburton's Rainer Irrigation.

Rainer Irrigation assistant manager Lucas Cawte said the sheer workload resulting from the wind damage far exceeded the company's resources for a quick turnaround and employing overseas staff would significantly reduce downtime for farmers.

Rainer Irrigation had fixed about a quarter of the irrigators on its books but those repairs did not represent the scale of damage the company had seen, he said.

Immigration New Zealand's Christchurch assistant area manager Steve Jones, said the department was happy to expedite the application process for overseas workers.

The Christchurch branch was selected to be the point of contact for processing the relevant applications and as such was able to advise on the type of applications and where they should be lodged, he said. Having one point of contact for IrrigationNZ and the various irrigation companies had proved very effective, he said.

''We consider requests for urgent processing on a case-by-case basis and, where there are compelling reasons, we will prioritise the processing of applications lodged.

''This was clearly a situation where time was of the essence and we agreed to prioritise applications accordingly,'' Mr Jones said.

Mr Cawte said companies were still waiting on parts to come into the country.

''One container has arrived from Australia where we cleared out their stock and another container is due shortly from the US.

''Our suppliers have really come to the party as we originally thought it would take six to eight weeks to get parts.''

Farmers had been understanding in the face of the scale of repairs the industry was facing, Mr Cawte said.

''Many are helping where they can by providing us with telelifters and other machinery and throwing their own manpower at the job. But it is early days still.''

 

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