A report from Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) released today claims that Australia’s domestic wholesale vegetable prices were 6 per cent lower on average in the financial year ending 30 June 2015 compared with the previous year.
The “Australian vegetable growing farm businesses, an economic survey, 2013-14 and 2014-15” report also found that whilst prices dropped, production costs jumped, an average of 4 per cent higher on the previous year.
The average cost of running a vegetable farm in Australia in the financial year ending 30 June 2015 was AUD$ AUD$640, 00 per farm whilst in the financial year ending 30 June 2014 it was only AUD$614, 090.
Cash receipts from vegetables dropped by 7.8 per cent across the same financial year periods, with the average receipt AUD$714, 000 in 2014-2015 down from AUD$774, 900 in 2013-2014.
Andrew White, Deputy CEO of AUSVEG, which is Australia’s vegetable growers representative body said that the findings reflected the number of closures of small Australian vegetable farms.
“The effect of these financial difficulties is likely to have been a factor in the 24 per cent drop in the number of small vegetable farms within Australia in 2014-15,” said White.
“Small business [in the vegetable growing sector] confidence is also much lower, with 21 per cent of existing small vegetable growers indicating that they are likely to exit the market completely next year,” White concluded.
