Rot sets in as dollar, imports hit fruit

Rachel Baxendale
April 02, 2013
The Australian

THOUSANDS of tonnes of top-quality Goulburn Valley peaches are rotting on the tree this season, after cannery SPC Ardmona reduced its quota by 17 per cent.

Victorian growers say the situation is not the fault of the cannery, but the consequence of a high dollar and supermarket shelves being flooded with cheap imports.

They argue the federal government is putting a world-class industry at risk by failing to acknowledge they are competing on an uneven playing field against foreign producers with low labour costs and lower OH&S and food safety standards.

In 2008, SPC Ardmona bought more than 40,000 tonnes of canning peaches from local growers.

Since then the quota has steadily reduced to 30,000 tonnes last year and 25,000 tonnes this season. Reductions in quotas of other fruit varieties, such as pears and apricots, have been similar.

Third-generation Ardmona farmer Peter Hall grows apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots and pomegranates for fresh and canned fruit markets on his 485ha property.

The downturn forced him to turn off the water and abandon one peach orchard three years ago. This year he will leave up to 100 tonnes of peaches unpicked in another.

The 50-year-old said the problem extended much further than the livelihoods of a few farming families. “I’ve got over 100 people working for me. They’ve all got families. This isn’t just some cottage industry,” Mr Hall said.

“I enjoy producing good, clean, healthy food and treating my workers well,” Mr Hall said. “I just think my competitors should have to jump through the same hoops before they’re allowed to sell to Australian consumers.”

Doug Brown, who runs an 18.5ha orchard in nearby Invergordon, where his father took up a post-war allotment in the 1950s, has donated 15 tonnes of fruit to charity Second Bite, and will leave between 25 tonnes and 30 tonnes unpicked.

Peaches are his main business, and the financial burden has already forced his wife to take a cleaning job.

“I’m resigned to not being able to pass it on to my children as a running orchard,” Mr Brown said.

Fruit Growers Victoria general manager John Wilson said the cost of producing fruit in Australia in 2009 was at 92 per cent of the world median. “By 2012 Australia’s cost of production was somewhere around 120 per cent of the world median, largely due to the high dollar,” he said.

Federal Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig said the government was doing what it could to assist producers affected by the high dollar through free financial counselling and income support.
“I always encourage people to choose Australian produce — be it fresh or processed — but ultimately this a commercial decision,” Mr Ludwig said.