00:00Australians enjoy an extraordinary array of fresh vegetables, among the best in the world.
00:17From the tropics in the north to the cooler climate of the south, our immense continent
00:23and diverse climate and soils support a vast and varied industry.
00:28So Australia's vegetable industry is truly national. We've got growing regions all around this country
00:33with thousands and thousands of growers who produce about 3.7 million tonnes of vegetables.
00:38The industry last year was worth about $5.7 billion in farm gate value,
00:43which is about a third of the $16.8 billion in national horticulture production.
00:51Of that, only 5%, mostly comprising carrots, potatoes and onions, is exported.
00:57And only about 2% of our fresh vegetables is imported.
01:02New figures show production rose in 23-24, but the overall farm gate value of that produce dropped by $140 million.
01:12In real terms, that equates to a 12% drop in returns, and a big reason why vegetable growers are feeling the pinch.
01:20So a lot of the pressures that we see on farm are exactly what every Australian household is going through at the moment.
01:26Our fuel and electricity prices are up through the roof, and a lot of our other inputs such as labour, fertiliser.
01:32Some of the fertilisers have come back down after those peaks we saw during COVID,
01:36but the average price is still well above what we would have been paying a number of years ago.
01:41So whether that's energy, fuel, freight, packaging, labour, there's not a key farm input that's probably had a reduction in price for farmers over recent years.
01:53While we're in a cost-of-living crisis for the Australian public, we're in a cost-of-production crisis for Australian growers.
01:59We survey our industry twice a year, and consistently over the last two years or so, we've had about a third of growers responding to those surveys,
02:09telling us that they're considering leaving the industry.
02:11Now that's a really alarming figure, that the environment that growers are facing at the moment,
02:16that there's up to one third are looking to exit if they could.
02:20We're in a small business process, we're in a small business process,
02:25and we're trying to get a number of small businesses we've been able to get out of here.
02:30So, this is my first half of our business, where it's a small business,
02:37and I want to be派 идеal, and I want to take you through the process of to one third of growers.
02:43We have a small business that we've been able to do without our business.
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