I am completing a Master of Engineering degree at the University of Waikato. My field of study is Assisted Harvesting in the Kiwifruit industry with a focus on the human factors aspect of Kiwifruit harvesting. As part of my research, I would like to establish what health and safety issues the Kiwifruit industry is dealing with. Much of the online data I have found so far is quite broad by industry and I think most Kiwifruit issues would be reported under Agriculture? I think that some Kiwifruit-related injuries may be filed under transport or warehousing in some instances. What I would ideally like to write about is injuries in the sub-category of Horticulture, the sub-sub category of Kiwifruit orchards and even a break down of what Kiwifruit activity resulted in the most injuries e.g. pruning, harvesting, etc along with the types of injuries being reported.
The aim of the work we are conducting is to address several factors:
- Help resolve the shortage of labor during orchard operations, mainly during fruit harvest.
- Identify the aspects of Kiwifruit harvesting that are causing injuries.
- Broaden the demographic of people able to conduct picking activities.
- Reduce fruit loss due to harvest damage.
If we can understand the negative impacts and injuries caused by Kiwifruit harvesting, we can design a new system that should see a reduction in these events. We need to know how people are being affected currently such as:
- Are there tripping or falling injuries while walking under the canopy?
- Is the repetitive picking motion causing arm injuries?
- Does carrying the picking bag cause back pain?
Dataset submitted
Kia ora This data has been uploaded to data.govt and can be found here: https://catalogue.data.govt.nz/dataset/kiwifruit-industry-related-claims If you have any questions please contact us at analytics@acc.co.nz. Have a nice day! Ngā mihi Analytics & Reporting, ACC
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Agency responded
Analytics & Reporting (Accident Compensation Corporation)
There are 14 accepted claims that have a rotator cuff tear in the kiwifruit growing industry between 1 January 2013 and 8 May 2024. These have been identified where the classification unit is equal to ‘Kiwifruit growing’ or equal to ‘Fruit picking’ and the accident description contains the word ‘kiwifruit’, the injury description contains ‘rotator cuff tear’ and the injury status is ‘Approved’, and the claim is in the work fund or the accident at work flag is equal to ‘Y’.
Please note that the Kiwifruit growing classification unit doesn't include on-hire agricultural workers (e.g. contracted seasonal fruit picking) as they have a different classification unit which can't be limited to kiwifruit. We have tried searching for kiwifruit in the accident description of claims under this classification unit, but it is unlikely that a client will specify ‘kiwifruit’ when describing how their accident happened. There may be more clients with torn rotator cuffs who've done kiwifruit picking, but we won't be able to find them.
Analytics & Reporting, ACC
Kia ora Ian, thanks for your comment. We've received your request and will provide a response as soon as possible and will let you know here when it's available. If you have any questions in the meantime, please email us at analytics@acc.co.nz.
Ian Broadmore
How common are rotar cuff tears in Kiwi Fruit Orchards.