Tasmanian farmers say there is clear evidence cheap imports are severely impacting the viability of local vegetable production.
The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences show that Australian increased its vegetable imports by 16 per cent in the 12 months to June 30. Imports totalled $908 million compared to $786m the previous year.
“We are being inundated with cheap vegetables, grown in conditions that no government in Australia would tolerate,” Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association chief executive Jan Davis said today.
“The high Australian dollar does not help Tasmania farmers. It induces processors and retailers to import this cheaper product. That cheaper product is now flooding the market. This is exacerbated by supermarket price policies.”
Ms Davis said the vegetable peak body AUSVEG worries that if a sizeable operation like Rosella, which has been around for over 150 years, has gone into voluntary administration, “it is clear that smaller, more vulnerable growers and processors will find it exceptionally difficult to compete with mounting imports”.
She said consumers had to become vocal advocates for local produce, for clear Country of Origin labelling and for governments to adopt anti-dumping policies.
In Tasmania, where potatoes were a mainstay of the farming sector, farmers had fought long and hard to prevent processors and retailers importing potatoes from New Zealand, not only from an economic viewpoint but also from a biosecurity perspective.
“The TFGA remains deeply concerned about the dangers of tomato-potato psylllid and a disease known as zebra chip, both of which occur throughout the crop in New Zealand,” Ms Davis said.
“It jeopardises a local industry worth $110 million to 300 growers.
“The supermarkets’ blinkered pursuit to impose cheap food prices is in neither the national interest nor Tasmania’s.
“Look for Tasmanian; buy Tasmanian,” she said.
