A third of Australia’s vegetable growers are at risk of being pushed out of the industry due to rising costs and falling returns. Adverse weather has contributed to their concerns, but more critical is the declining consumption of veggies.
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00:00Australians enjoy an extraordinary array of fresh vegetables, among the best in the world.
00:17From the tropics in the north to the cooler climate of the south, our immense continent
00:23and diverse climate and soils support a vast and varied industry.
00:28So Australia's vegetable industry is truly national. We've got growing regions all around this country
00:33with thousands and thousands of growers who produce about 3.7 million tonnes of vegetables.
00:38The industry last year was worth about $5.7 billion in farm gate value,
00:43which is about a third of the $16.8 billion in national horticulture production.
00:51Of that, only 5%, mostly comprising carrots, potatoes and onions, is exported.
00:57And only about 2% of our fresh vegetables is imported.
01:02New figures show production rose in 23-24, but the overall farm gate value of that produce dropped by $140 million.
01:12In real terms, that equates to a 12% drop in returns, and a big reason why vegetable growers are feeling the pinch.
01:20So a lot of the pressures that we see on farm are exactly what every Australian household is going through at the moment.
01:26Our fuel and electricity prices are up through the roof, and a lot of our other inputs such as labour, fertiliser.
01:32Some of the fertilisers have come back down after those peaks we saw during COVID,
01:36but the average price is still well above what we would have been paying a number of years ago.
01:41So whether that's energy, fuel, freight, packaging, labour, there's not a key farm input that's probably had a reduction in price for farmers over recent years.
01:53While we're in a cost-of-living crisis for the Australian public, we're in a cost-of-production crisis for Australian growers.
01:59We survey our industry twice a year, and consistently over the last two years or so, we've had about a third of growers responding to those surveys,
02:09telling us that they're considering leaving the industry.
02:11Now that's a really alarming figure, that the environment that growers are facing at the moment,
02:16that there's up to one third are looking to exit if they could.
02:20We're in a small business process, we're in a small business process,
02:25and we're trying to get a number of small businesses we've been able to get out of here.
02:30So, this is my first half of our business, where it's a small business,
02:37and I want to be派 идеal, and I want to take you through the process of to one third of growers.
02:43We have a small business that we've been able to do without our business.