.jpg)
Two weeks ago Cassandra (Managing Director), Nils (General Manager), Chris (Agricultural Recruitment Consultant) and Rike (Agricultural Recruitment Manager) went to Indonesia to meet with an Indonesian recruitment agency to work on a relationship to recruit much needed dairy workers into New Zealand. The trip saw the group spend a day in Bali before the business part of the trip commenced in Malang. We spent a busy week in Malang where we got to visit local dairy farms, a milk processing plant and also the family of an Indonesian dairy farmer working in New Zealand. One of our highlights was visiting said family in a small village. They welcomed us into their home with open arms and offered us an amazing spread of food. The family’s son has been working on a dairy farm in Matamata for several years and this has made such a difference to the family's lives. This opportunity allowed the family to buy a car, buy more cows for their family farm to go from 4 to 12 cows and also allowed his sister to go to uni to study psychology, they were also able to extend their small house. The family was very grateful for the opportunity their son had been given and the impact it had on their lives.
We went to visit two dairy farms, where cows are milked by hand twice per day. Both farms had between 20 and 30 cows. It was amazing to see first hand the farming practices over in Indonesia and work on how we could utilise their skill sets in NZ.
Towards the end of our trip we met with candidates to conduct interviews. The candidates were so passionate and determined to make a better life for themselves in NZ. Some of which had travelled two days on a scooter just to come meet with us and have an interview. We were pleasantly surprised by the calibre of candidates we met that day.
Overall it was a very busy week with lots of different impressions and a culture that is a lot different to the one we are used to. This at times was challenging for Cassandra and Rike, doing business as women in a mostly islamic country. Our hosts made sure we never went hungry and we got to try lots of different foods, which most of the time we were unsure of what we were actually eating. Nonetheless the food was amazing, although very adventurous at times. The people of Indonesia are very friendly and welcoming. We are all very grateful for the experience and the things we got to do and see that we wouldn’t have been able to if we had gone by ourselves. It was a successful week, but a busy week. We spend a lot of time together in our group and we are very lucky to have had no major disagreements while travelling together for over a week!
