Australia agrees priority visa processing for vital farm workers, industry group says

CANBERRA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The Australian government will provide priority visa processing for some vital temporary migrant farm workers, Grain Producers Australia said on Thursday, easing fears that an immigration crackdown will cause labour shortages and disrupt the harvest.

Australia is one of the world's biggest exporters of wheat, barley and canola. Harvesting of all three is due to begin in the coming weeks and many farms rely on temporary migrant labour to get the crops in.

GPA said in a statement that the government, which has announced policies to reduce annual immigration by tens of thousands, had agreed that farm industry bodies could submit urgent farm worker cases for priority processing.

"This is a solution and we thank the government for acting," said GPA Chair Matthew Madden, adding that it was not clear how well the mechanism would work, how many visas it could process or whether it would guarantee rapid approvals.

"We will see how the process works in action, but growers hopefully now have a way to get critical workers here for harvest," Madden said.

The government measures set a three-month processing period and restrict visa extensions. Farm groups have said processing of working holiday maker visas, used heavily by farms and other rural businesses, had already slowed from days to months.

A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that it "will work with the National Farmers Federation on identifying and prioritising people with specific skills in the agricultural sector who have applied for a working holiday maker visa, have contracted with an employer to provide their skills to undertake agricultural work and need to be here inside 3 months".

The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of work hours.