The avocado season runs from early February to late July each year. During this time, Rock Ridge requires an additional 60-80 people to help us with the picking and packing of the fruit. By the end of the season, our pickers and packers are highly experienced. The pickers will fill approximately three half-tonne bins per day and each of our packers will complete over 80 trays per hour.
Interested in working on the avocado farms? Here’s some of the jobs you may be asked to do
Picking
We have two different teams of pickers – the ‘ground crew’ and the ‘treetop crew’. The titles are self-explanatory, members of the ground crew walk along the rows cutting fruit from the branches that are within reaching distance. The treetop crew uses elevated work platforms (EWPs) to reach fruit in the tops of the trees. All pickers must handle the fruit with care to ensure that the avocados are not damaged throughout the picking process.
Packing
The packing team works in our state-of-the-art packhouse located in the Tolga Industrial Estate. The shed crew pack the fruit into boxes and then stack the boxes onto pallets, ready to be transported to the market. Although our high-tech Compac machine grades the fruit using a computer, our staff are still taught a high level of knowledge regarding market specifications to ensure that any mis-graded fruit is identified.
Pruning
Towards the end of the avocado season, the pruning teams will use EWPs and a handsaw to cut down any unnecessary branches in the tops of the avocado trees. This ensures that the remaining branches receive enough sunlight to produce a good crop the following season. This is therefore one of the most important roles on the farm and requires a sound understanding of the pruning techniques.
If you have read through the above job descriptions and believe you are a suitable candidate for any of these positions, please fill out an application form here.