Ideal conditions in one of Australia's biggest winter vegetable growing regions have seen the volume of produce skyrocket. The vegetable glut has led to an oversupply which, given the basic law of supply and demand, should lead to cheaper vegetables for the consumer.
"The market this year is so terrible, because everything's growing so well and there's plenty of it," Bowen Gumlu Growers Association president Carl Walker said. "Last year it [the high cost of vegetables] was because we had bad weather conditions, and we were down production-wise by 30 to 40 per cent. This year there's no excuse for things being expensive because we're getting less than cost of production. At the moment I'm losing money every day I pick."
A farmer himself, Walker said growers needed to take some accountability for the significant oversupply: "Everyone forgets in Australia, we have 26 million people, we already grow food for 60 to 80 million people. So to expand this year, when we knew economically it was going to be tough, is a fool's errand.”
Walker grew fewer vegetables, this year knowing demand would be low due to the rise in cost of living. But many others grew more. "Big producers are being told it [vegetables] has to be perfect so they're growing more, so they get more perfect quantities, and the stuff that's not perfect is getting thrown away," Walker said. "So, you're getting more and more waste."
Source: abc.net.au
