Viticulture is AGworks' biggest work area. Agworks has contracts with over 80 vineyards in Hawkes Bay and Marlborough. Work ranging from harvest, thinning, pruning, grafting, leaf plucking and debudding are some of the tasks performed.

To get a better picture of the work available here is the annual work requirements for the viticulture side of AGworks' operation.

May-September

In May pruners are sent to Marlborough to start pruning earlier than the norm due to the high volumes of work.

From June vineyard winter pruning and development in Hawkes Bay commences. In the last two seasons AGworks Ltd has required 100 workers throughout this time.

Added to this is the demand still from Marlborough for pruners which continues unabated from May through to the end of August.

In addition Vineyard Plants Ltd, a rootstock and grafting nursery commences operation in June taking 20 AGworks Ltd workers each year. Morton Estate does the same, taking 10 workers.  Gathering of wood stock, grafting and root stock selection are the main tasks undertaken. This work requires a particularly refined skill set. Over several years AGworks Ltd has found that migrant workers from Thailand and Malaysia are particularly suited to this type of work.

October-December

From October through to the end of December the nursery work continues. In October vineyard leaf plucking, shoot thinning, tucking, debudding and maintenance begins with a purpose. During October the demand is for 60 workers in Hawkes Bay. In November and through December the vineyard demand increases markedly to 150 workers.

January-April

During the harvest AGworks Ltd experiences the same phenomenon as all other employers in this region. AGworks requires 200 workers through January and February in order to meet its contractual commitments. Once harvesting in March and April has reached its height AGworks requires 325 vineyard workers alone, let alone the workers required to honour the onion purchase, apple harvest and apple packhouse commitments.