Australia looks for Vietnam farmers amid stronger ties

Australia and Vietnam on Monday signed the first bilateral memorandum of understanding under the Australian Agriculture Visa Program, making workers from the Southeast Asia country the first to be employed under this initiative.

Under the program, employees will be recruited to work across a range of agriculture sectors, including horticulture, dairy, wool, grains, fisheries and forestry, including support services and primary processing.

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne called the program "a key initiative" of the Australia-Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy launched by the two countries’ prime ministers on November 1, 2021.

"Vietnam’s early participation in the program demonstrates the Morrison Government’s commitment to deepening cooperation under the Australia-Vietnam Strategic Partnership," she said in a statement.

"For decades, Vietnamese workers, students, business people, and tourists have made extensive contributions to Australia. The Australian Government looks forward to this continuing under the program."

The Australian Agriculture Visa Program is intended to provide a sustainable, long-term contribution to Australia’s labour supply that supports Australia’s agricultural and primary industry sectors.

It supplements the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, which remains the mainstay for meeting agricultural workforce shortages in the country’s primary industries and the key solution for the current harvest.

However, it is not clear when the first Vietnamese workers will come to Australia, and how many workers are likely to be employed through the visa scheme. It is also not clear if the Vietnamese workers would be skilled or unskilled.

Last November, Minister Payne announced the Seasonal Worker Program and the Pacific Labour Scheme of the PALM would be consolidated and operated under a single, improved scheme. It will commence in April 2022 and be managed by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Vietnam and Australia established a comprehensive partnership in 2009 and elevated the relationship to a strategic partnership in March 2018.

In November 2020, Australia’s Foreign Minister Payne and her Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh agreed a plan of action for the Strategic Partnership to cover the 2020-2023 period.

Over the past 20 years, the Vietnam-Australia trade has grown on average by 8.6% each year, much faster than the growth of Australia’s overall trade (5.8%) and faster than that of Australia’s trade with ASEAN countries over the same period (5.5%).

Total two-way trade of goods and services was valued at A$14.6 billion ($10.93 billion) in 2020, according to the publication "Australia–Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy" published by the Australian Government in December 2021.