His statement came after Australia signed with Vietnam thefirst bilateral Memorandum of Understanding under its Agriculture VisaProgramme on March 28.
Mahar said the programme is crucial to helping Australia'sagriculture sector address workforce shortages for the sector valued at 100billion AUD (70 billion USD) by 2030.
A large amount of Australian grain, beef and fruit hasalready been exported to Vietnam, he said, adding that more Vietnamese workersto Australian farms will foster this relationship.
Meanwhile, Australian Minister for Agriculture DavidLittleproud said the local agricultural industry is short of about 20,000workers. The visa programme will accept skilled, semi-skilled and low-skilledforeign workers in occupations such as farming, dairy farming, wool, grain,fisheries and forestry.
The minister emphasised that it marks the biggest change inthe labour structure, not only accepting unskilled workers but also skilled andsemi-skilled ones and opening up opportunities for permanent settlement inAustralia for workers. In the first phase, the programme will focus on occupations that require low skill./.