An economic confidence survey released last week, reveals that vegetable growers' confidence has increased by 32 per cent. The survey, conducted by AusVeg, included questions about growers’ confidence in macroeconomics, investment, markets and government policy from April to June.
It found overall confidence in the industry had risen by 32.7 per cent, and confidence in the domestic and export markets rose by 40 per cent.
Confidence in macroeconomic, investment and government indices all increased from the previous quarter and Victorian grower confidence was above the national level, while grower confidence was slightly below the national level in Queensland and Tasmania.
AusVeg spokesman Shaun Lindhe said it was possible the increase in confidence occurred as a result of the 2016 federal budget, which outlined a number of favourable initiatives for the vegetable industry, such as reducing the company tax rate, increased biosecurity funding and $2 billion for major water infrastructure projects.
“Growers also indicated in this survey that they felt more confident investing in their businesses in light of current economic conditions, which is a positive sign.
This could have a flow-on effect of creating jobs and strengthening the economic status of the Australian vegetable industry, as well as the national economy,” said Mr Lindhe.
The results from the survey are a stark comparison to the July-September 2015 quarter when AusVeg’s economic confidence survey found grower confidence had declined by 3.5 per cent.
Source: weeklytimesnow.com.au
