The expansion of the scheme was announced yesterday by Minister of Immigration Michael Woodhouse and followed years of lobbying by horticulture and viticulture industry leaders.
A paper recently released by the Ministry for Primary Industries predicted the two industries would need an extra 7800 workers by 2025.
Under the RSE scheme, Pacific Islanders are permitted to enter this country as seasonal employees to fill jobs in those sectors.
When the scheme came into effect in 2007, it had a cap of 5000 but that was increased to 8000 five years ago.
Mr Woodhouse yesterday announced a new cap of 9000 workers.
Asked if he was happy about the increase, Summerfruit New Zealand chairman Gary Bennetts, of Roxburgh, said: ''too right''.
''Now we'll be able to harvest our fruit this season and can help create some more permanent jobs in the industry - that's the plan.''
Orchardists were ''Kiwis first'' when it came to seasonal workers, but they were unable to get enough ''able'' people to carry out the harvest at the right time, Mr Bennetts said.
New Zealand Winegrowers sustainability general manager Philip Manson, of Auckland, said the RSE scheme was vital and underpinned growth.
Mr Woodhouse and Minister of Social Development Paula Bennett also announced a new programme aimed at getting more New Zealanders into seasonal work, the details of which are to be finalised.
Mr Manson said to be eligible for the RSE scheme, employers already had to prove they had engaged with Work and Income to try to find New Zealanders to fill the roles.
