Almost one in three vegetable growers are considering quitting in the face of rising production costs and meagre farmgate prices.
An average of 32 percent of growers across industry group AUSVEG’s sentiment surveys since 2023 said they thought about leaving, while another third said they would exit if offered a fair price for their farm.
“We talk to large, medium and small vegetable growers around the country every day—and for many the relentless pressure is proving too much,” AUSVEG chief executive Michael Coote said.
Nearly half of respondents said they were financially worse-off than a year ago.
The situation is taking a major financial, personal and health toll on producers, and would have serious consequences for Australia’s food security, Coote said.
“Losing vegetable growers at anywhere near the scale indicated by our surveys has catastrophic implications for future vegetable supply,” he said.
“It would cause consumer prices to increase and threaten our food security in the longer term.”
Australian growers currently produced 98 percent of fresh vegetables consumed nationally, according to the industry group.
AUSVEG is calling for initiatives to shore up national food security, secure sovereign manufacturing, ease worker shortages, and for a $125 million (US$79.4 million), five-year commitment to increase vegetable consumption.
Nationals leader David Littleproud said it was clear growers weren’t getting the support they needed.
“Unfortunately, the industry is going backwards because Labor has treated our farmers with contempt and ignored the coalition’s calls for supermarket reform as far back as 2022,” Littleproud said.
The Albanese Labor government announced an inquiry into Australia’s supermarket sector in January of 2024, and the resulting code of conduct is set to come into effect on April 1, 2025.
The code aimed to protect farmers and everyday Australians at the supermarket checkout, Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said in a statement.
“This will protect suppliers and farmers and improve supermarket conduct with heavy penalties for breaches of the code,” Collins said.
“The mandatory code will address imbalances in bargaining power between large grocery retailers or wholesalers and their suppliers and includes new obligations to protect suppliers from retribution and strengthened dispute resolution mechanisms for suppliers.”
The code will also establish an anonymous supplier and whistleblower complaints process via consumer watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which led the 2024 inquiry into the supermarket sector.
