Australian fruit and vegetable growers are up in arms about supermarket behemoths Coles and Woolworths, but limited options for export income has locked them into selling to a concentrated domestic market, an ACCC inquiry has heard.
AusVeg general manager Lucy Gregg, fruit grower Peter Hall and Fruit Growers Victoria officer Michael Crisera all testified before the ACCC’s inquiry into supermarket prices on Friday that growers were often forced to offload their product to Coles, Woolworths and Aldi because of the fragility of export markets and the complexities of shipping fruit and vegetables abroad.
“The vegetable industry is highly competitive, high volumes and low margin,” Ms Gregg said.
“(There is) lots of competition from other countries, that’s why there is less opportunity for export.”
Mr Hall said export markets “vary widely” and were subject to geopolitical changes.
He said in the late 1990s he set up an orchard to supply white flesh fruit to Taiwan, but a diplomatic faux pas shut down the market and he ended up supplying to domestic buyers.
“The export markets can be fragile and can vary, so you really want to lock in your position (in the domestic market),” he said.
“You need to protect that local market as well, so it’s a bit of a balancing act.”
About four per cent of vegetables are exported abroad, Ms Gregg said, with hard vegetables like potatoes, carrots and onions making up the bulk of exported product.
