Low potato supply causes vegetable CPI increase by 12.5% in Australia
"Pretty much every state got affected in some way. We probably only just broke even," said potato farmer Anthony Failla, who have grown in Melbourne for over 50 years.
According to the family, they haven't seen a shortage like this in all their years farming.
"Supermarkets weren't able to fill their shelves," Mr Failla's sister Christina de Sousa said.
That has all had an impact on prices. One of the major upward movers in an otherwise soft Consumer Price Index result released on Wednesday was vegetables (up 12.5 per cent for the year and 2.5 per cent in the December quarter).
Potatoes, along with broccoli and cauliflower, were called out by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as leading prices upwards.
"The planting season in July and August was very wet, so they couldn't get onto the fields to plant the crops. You end up with a window where nothing's been planted for a period of time," he said.
source: stockandland.com.au
