Australia
December 2, 2014
Aussie broccoli growers are continuing to do it tough in the face of rising costs, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).
The latest data illustrates that in 2011-12 broccoli growers’ returns, on average were considerably lower than they were in 2007-08.
“Australian broccoli growers have been struggling over the past five years, largely as a result of increasing costs and fluctuating prices,” said AUSVEG spokesperson Andrew White.
“Rising costs have but pressure on growers, whose average returns have fallen since 2007-08 despite an increase in the price they have been receiving for their product.”
“While domestic broccoli prices have increased by 12 per cent since 2007-08, average costs have increased by 20 per cent in this same time period, which means that growers are not seeing great returns from higher prices.”
AUSVEG is the leading horticultural body representing Australia’s 9,000 vegetable and potato growers.
Mr White said the broccoli growers’ situation was similar to the challenges being faced by many Australian growers of other vegetable commodities. He added it was important for broccoli growers to find innovative ways to increase productivity, while also investigating new income streams, such as developing export markets.
“The majority of Australia’s headed broccoli and cauliflower exports made their way to Singapore and Brunei, with the UAE and Malaysia also emerging as important destinations for Australian broccoli exports,” said Mr White.
“With new free trade and economic partnership agreements coming into effect in the near future, and an ongoing focus on developing export markets for Australian vegetable growers, there may be opportunities for broccoli producers to expand their operations on a global scale.”
AUSVEG is developing a series of ‘Veggie Stats’ documents to profile different crops. The commodities analysed include lettuce, carrots and broccoli, among others. Veggie stats studies are currently being featured in each issue of the industry magazine, Vegetables Australia, with broccoli featuring in the November/December edition.
The data underpinning the Veggie Stats documents is largely sourced from ABARES and the Global Trade Atlas. This project has been funded by Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited (HIA) using the National Vegetable Levy and matched funds from the Australian Government.
The data itself provides a broad indication of the performance of vegetable crop growers and should be interpreted carefully. The data is presented at the national level and therefore does not account for differences amongst jurisdictions and is not specific to every Australian grower since each enterprise operates differently from one another.
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