The $10 million upgrade of the McCain potato processing plant at Smithton announced last week has been welcomed as a vote of confidence for the state's farmers and something that would allow local growers to farm more efficiently.
"Anything the company can do to aid efficiencies is always welcome, especially when it's an investment in an infrastructure upgrade," Thirlstane farmer Nathan Richardson said.
Mr Richardson, Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association vegetable council chairman, said the McCain investment brings outdated storage up to scratch.
Mr Richardson said the $10 million spent on the McCain infrastructure did not compare to the hundreds of millions of dollars that farmers have spent to increase productivity and efficiencies from the adoption of new technologies, such as GPS, and water and irrigation equipment.
On Friday Mr Richardson said that the demand has never been higher for Australian grown product but he said the two big players (McCain and Simplot) only wanted to talk about volume and supply and not price.
Mr Richardson said if McCain was "very serious" the company would reinstate its mixed vegetable processing plant in Australia instead of bringing imports in through the back door in frozen packets packed in New Zealand from local and imported ingredients.
McCain Foods agriculture director John Jackson spoke last week of the need to be more efficient and globally competitive. "It's all about being globally competitive and being resistant to imports coming in to Australia," Mr Jackson said last week.
He said the cost of production and labour in Australia was very high as well as shipping costs.
