FAQ

The team behind picktheworld.org includes a web developer/programmer and two professional fruit pickers, who together have had over 40 fruit picking jobs in Australia, New Zealand and Canada over the last six years.

While picking fruit around the world is a wonderful way to sustain a backpacking lifestyle, we found out that no reliable information was yet to be provided on the web to help such lifestyle travellers plan their fruit picking seasons properly. Although some websites are already dedicated to helping fruit pickers find work and in many cases successfully, none of them were run by actual pickers and therefore in our opinion lacked the real life experiences needed to relate the true issues of this horticultural sector. Websites were also guilty of not providing reliable feedback on those jobs or proper contact information on potential employers. Most of the websites in question were only limited to providing job offers, without describing properly who the employer was and what the job involved. That is why we decided to start compiling data and feedback about all the potential fruit picking employers in the countries we have experience of. We aim to create a web platform where international fruit pickers can meet each other, find information on employers and share their experiences.

Our main objective is to try and improve the relationships between pickers and farmers, and bring more transparency to this seasonal job sector. Indeed, there are still way too many pickers not able to find a good farm to work for and likewise many good farms can’t find the good pickers they deserve. Our website will be dedicated to help both parties meet each other, and allow them to plan their picking seasons better. At the same time, we want to try and warn all the new pickers about the different scams that unfortunately exist in the fruit picking industry. In looking at the feedback of other pickers, people can know what to expect from a company, making it easier to choose suitably.

We have begun this website with the three countries that we have much experience working ourselves in (New Zealand, Canada and Australia). If the website is successful one of our main future developments will be to include more and more countries. Fingers crossed!

There are three sections of the website that are especially dedicated to help you in finding a job and/or to improve your fruit picking experience.

Section 1: “Find a Farm”

Navigating through the interactive maps of the three countries presently supported, you will be able to see the icons of the different companies registered in our database. Once you choose the one you want to have more information about, simply click on it and the company profile will show up. In this profile, you will be able to find which products are grown and/or packed by this company, if they do employ seasonal workers or not, if they have an organic certification and, of course, their contact details (physical address, website, email, phone number, etc…).

Section 2: “Feedback”

On each company profile, you will see a tab called “Feedback” followed by a number. The number indicates how many feedbacks have been already posted by other users on this company. Each of them will include a lot of different and useful information, opinions, and how past and present workers have rated companies. This is designed to help you make your decision of which job would fit you the most and for which company.

Section 3: “Picker’s Blog”

Here is the section that will help you to improve your skills, to plan your season depending on where you travel or just to give you some extra information about different subjects linked to fruit picking or fruit picking industry. This blog is being run by experienced fruit pickers who know what they are talking about and the blog is frequently updated.

As we said previously, our goal is to bring more transparency and accurate information about the fruit picking industry. To make our website grow and become the platform we would all like to use, we definitely need your help:

Participate to the “Picker’s Blog”: you can take an active part to the blog’s life in submitting new subjects or articles, or just responding to the posts already published.

Give your feedback on a company you have worked for: To do so, you need to go on the profile of the company you have worked for (either finding this profile through the map or through the internal search engine). Click on the tab “add feedback”. Then you have to fill the form (this should take you no more than 3-5 minutes even if it looks long at first). Once submitted it may take up to 48 hours to validate and publish.

Help us to implement the company database : if one of the fruit picking companies that you worked for or you have heard of is not registered yet in our database (which can certainly be the case as it’s impossible to be exhaustive), then you can click on the tab “Add a company” and fill the form. This way we will be able to add this company to our website, again please allow up to 48 hours before any new content can be published due to formalities (please refer to the terms and conditions for more details).

First you should double-check through the map and through the search engine that the company you worked for is really not already registered in our database (some companies have several working places so it might be why you can’t find it on the map, or also, some companies are locally known by other names than their real business name). If you really can’t find it, please tell us all and add the company (details on how to do this are answered above).

Yes, it is! It can take up to 48 hours before this new information will be displayed, as we need to double-check any new content before publishing it on our website. In some instances we may actually need to contact you before publishing, and we may ask you to modify some of the content if it doesn’t pass the moderation process. If you haven’t heard of us and you had submitted the forms more than 48 hours ago, then email us and we will try to figure out what the problem is.

Although we endeavour to give you the most accurate information possible, inaccuracies can happen. You are more than welcome to query anything; indeed we encourage it as it will ultimately provide more accurate information for other users. To do so, send us an email with the name of the company involved and the information you would like to modify. After verification of the accuracy of this new information, we will publish it. We will try to set up a modification form as soon as possible so you won’t have to contact us by email anymore for such matter.

At the moment the only way to do it is to send us an email with the feedback involved and what you would like to modify. We will try to set up a modification form as soon as possible so you won’t have to contact us by email anymore for such matter.

Probably because you are not registered yet on our website, so you have access to only limited information. Create your own profile, it’s free, and it should fix the problem. If you still can’t see that information while logged in with your username, then contact us and we will try to figure out the problem.