24/02/2010_TFGA calls for appropriate budget to study vegetable industry competitors
Published: 24/02/2010
TFGA calls for appropriate budget to study vegetable industry competitors
Tasmania’s vegetable growers, who face strong international competition to secure contracts with processors, today called for substantially increased State Government funding to allow them to gauge the strength of that competition.
Following McCain’s November announcement that it would close its Smithton vegetable processing operation and effectively take it to New Zealand, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association pressed the resultant McCain’s task force for funding to benchmark the apparent advantage that New Zealand growers had over their Tasmanian counterparts.
The Government allocated $10,000. TFGA chief executive Chris Oldfield said today the association needed $50,000 to commission the study to be done properly.
“For some time now we have been told that our major competitor for processed vegetables, New Zealand, has more a competitive price structure than Tasmania,” he said.
“This was certainly the main reason offered by the McCain’s management when it announced it would be moving vegetable processing operations to New Zealand.
Mr Oldfield said there had been broad statements that the cost of production in New Zealand was 20 to 30 per cent cheaper than in Australia, but it required defining and testing.
“While there is a lot of anecdotal information about differing labour costs and the general costs of doing business in Tasmania, the time has well and truly come for a definitive study,” he said.
“We believe it cannot be done for less than $50,000. This is such an important issue it really needs to be done definitively and just not with regards to New Zealand, but also in relation to our other major competitors.”
On Monday, representatives of the TFGA Vegetable Council and Mr Oldfield met federal Minister for Agriculture Tony Burke to express their concern about imported processed vegetables flooding into the Australian market and the impact these actions are having on farmers and the rural communities who rely on a vibrant vegetable industry.
“In addition to cost structures, we raised a range of issues with the Minster, matters such as food safety, labelling and point-of-origin information, the market power of the major supermarkets and our growing concern with products coming in from China as well as New Zealand,” Mr Oldfield said.
Contact: Chris Oldfield 0419 309 303