FARMERS are considering leaving the industry, according to a survey by industry body AusVeg.
Last year, 34 per cent of Australian vegetable growers were considering leaving the industry, citing labour shortages, rising operational costs and policy changes as major concerns, AusVeg said.
The problem is echoed by Beverford onion, beetroot and broccoli grower Peter Shadbolt, of Scotties Point Farms, who said this season had been “the worst year in 30 years”.
“Everything we’re growing is below cost for a year. That’s broccoli and onions all returning below cost,” Mr Shadbolt said.
“That’s the game we play. We’re price takers, not price makers.”
While onions are selling for more than $3.50 per kg, Mr Shadbolt sells his onions for an estimated 30 cents per kg.
While supermarkets are facing increasing pressure for an ACCC inquiry, Mr Shadbolt isn’t too hopeful.
“I’m not sure there’ll be a lot of change, because that’s just the way big businesses operate.”
National Party leader and agriculture spokesman David Littleproud last week said farmers were “walking away because supermarkets are taking them for ride”.
Mr Littleproud has called for an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry into fruit and vegetable prices as farmers lose profit when selling crops to supermarkets for lower than wholesale prices.
Late last year supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths found themselves facing a Senate inquiry into their pricing strategies and market concentration of food prices.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers are in talks with the consumer watchdog to take action against supermarkets if they don’t lower the prices for fruits and vegetables being sold to customers.
Mr Littleproud said supermarkets still made record profits amid a cost-of-living crisis.
Coles and Woolworths, which own about two-thirds of the grocery market, made record profits of more than $1 billion each in 2023.
“We need to investigate the price disparity, compel CEOs to give evidence and have greater penalties for those who do the wrong thing, including not paying farmers a fair price,” Mr Littleproud said.
Victorian farmer Ross Marsolino said recently he was prepared to walk away from his zucchini crop if he couldn’t sell the vegetables at more than $2 per kg this year.
“I have 50 workers who will have to go and find another job. The supermarkets are buying our product for $1.80 a kg but then retailing them for $4.99 a kg when in reality our product should be selling for under $3 a kg,” Mr Marsolino said.Far North Queensland farmer Shaun Jackson now sells his melons, which are 80 per cent of his products, to Japan due to the disparity between wholesale and retail prices of melons in supermarkets in Australia.
“Instead of going to Coles and Woolworths I’m now sending 200,000 boxes of melons overseas,” Mr Jackson said.
