Stats show Australian vegetable growers getting squeezed
The peak vegetable group AUSVEG has cited figures from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) which show vegetable imports continue to grow.
AUSVEG spokesman Hugh Gurney said the imports threaten an Australian vegetable growing and processing sector worth $3.3 billion.
"Vegetable imports in the financial year 2011-12 was $908 million, which is an increase of 16 per cent on the previous year and almost double from what it was in around 2004-05.
"So there is a worrying trend that imports of processed and frozen vegetables are increasing and that's really putting the squeeze on Australian growers," he said.
In Tasmania, vegetable farmers are questioning federal funding of the Australian car industry, compared with support for food manufacturing jobs.
Growers say more than $2 billion in the last 12 years has gone to prop up car makers, while vegetable processors have been closing their doors.
Tasmanian director of AUSVEG, David Addison, has called for a review of the discrepancy between government funding across Australia's manufacturing sectors.
"Why should one industry be supported over another?" he said.
"I mean support all or support none."
"And to be heading to a position where you're reliant on other parts of the world to feed the nation is probably not a place a nation should go."
Source: www.abc.net.au
