There are fears a bumper multibillion-dollar harvest in WA is at risk because of a new crackdown on backpacker and temporary visas.
An army of workers arrive to help on the land every year but farmers say they are now being blocked or delayed in a bureaucratic nightmare.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Visa delays threaten WA’s bumper harvest season
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“Farmers are distressed trying to work out who’s going to operate all their big machinery this year,” farmer Mic Fels told 7NEWS.
The Esperance farmer says the Federal Government’s decision to slow down approvals is another blow to the industry.
“We have three Danish skilled farm workers, they’ve got university qualifications, they’ve got years of experience operating exactly the same machines that we own,” he said.
“They’re sitting on hold — have been since July — waiting for their visas to be processed.”
Harvest has made an earlier than expected start in WA, and grain farmers are eyeing off a crop of 23 million tonnes.
There are fears a bumper multibillion-dollar harvest in WA is at risk because of a new crackdown on backpacker and temporary visas. Credit: 7NEWS A visa approval which used to be just days or even minutes can now take up to three months.
“It’s like they’re picking on farmers now,” Fels said.
“Farmers have had to deal with a lot this year.
“There’s been the risk over whether there was going to be fertiliser, whether there was going to be diesel.
“We got through that, but the uncertainty is the big cause of stress, and now it’s the uncertainty over workforce.”
Farmer Mic Fels. Credit: 7NEWS National Farmers Federation vice president John Hassell said working holidaymakers “stay in accommodations on farms” and “don’t put pressure on all those sorts of things”.
“I think this is a very ill-informed response to calls by One Nation and the Liberal Party to reduce immigration,” he said.
The federal government has now agreed to fast track some urgent visa requests but approvals are not guaranteed and farmers say time is already slipping away.
“Every day that a harvest is delayed, it decreases the value and the quality of the crops,” Hassell said.