THE grim plight of fruit growers in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley could be told to a national audience, after a television program hosted a debate in Shepparton yesterday.
Today Tonight recorded the ‘Farmers Election Debate’ for Channel 7 in the town's grandstand on Tuesday, which is directly across the road from the SPC Ardmona factory.
Despite being invited to the event, the absence of any representatives from the canning company - who told suppliers earlier this year they were halving their intake - was noted.
Instead, about 200 producers joined farming leaders and politicians such as Bob Katter, former National Senator Barnaby Joyce, federal member for the Murray Sharman Stone and NSW Liberals Senator Bill Heffernan.
Another no show was Federal Agricultural Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, which many growers expressed frustration over.
Local growers put most of their efforts on calling for politicians to put tariffs on imported food and push for clearer labelling laws - two of the main reasons they said was behind the decline of the canning industry.
Many hoped this would halt the deluge of cheap imported food into the country, which Australian producers cannot compete with.
An emotional Rocky Mantovani, who grows peaches in the local region, turned up to the showgrounds with a load of dead fruit trees on the back of his ute, which had been pulled from an orchard as a result of SPC’s decision to cut their intake.
It appeared to be a display of frustration over the uncontrollable circumstances he’s been dealt.
He explained to the crowd that Coca Cola Amatil (SPC’s parent company) wrote a letter earlier in the year to tell him they had “culled” him from the industry after 40 years of loyalty with the company.
He argued tariffs would not help the 61 fruit growers - who had been made redundant - in any way.
But other growers, including Mooroopna pear grower Peter Hall, said they were urgently needed for the future of the industry.
“I reject the idea it’s a past industry. We grow some of the finest fruit in the world here,” he said.
“The trouble is the government make us jump through these hoops, but the rest of the world doesn’t.”
He said he was not looking for financial assistance.
“Just put a tariff on incoming products - and take that money and send it to foreign aid or somewhere, we don’t need the money - we need a level playing field,” he said.
NSW Liberals Senator Bill Heffernan refused to say whether or not he would introduce tariffs if elected – instead stating growers needed time to transition to another industry, such as fresh fruit.
“This is something the government could do,” he said.
“If it’s good enough for the car industry to get assistance, why isn’t good enough for you guys to get assistance?”
Barnaby Joyce - who said he was speaking as an individual until the election was decided on September 7 - also did not make any commitments about tariffs.
He told growers they needed to have a clearer list of things they wanted to achieve.
“You can get a bubbling up of emotion in these sorts of issues, but when that happens you don’t actually deliver an outcome that is tangible,” he said.
He did admit he would push for clearer labelling laws if elected.
Bob Katter, fronting the audience as the leader of Katter’s Australian party, raised his voice to say Governments incorrectly and repeatedly told growers that tariffs could not be introduced – or the dollar could not be lowered.
“If you can’t do anything about the dollar, or tariffs, at a time when farmers are operating in the most un-level playing field in the world, then please give us some money so we can get the hell out of agriculture in the country,” he said.
“You are all doomed. Farming in Australian cannot win and the reason is because the Liberal government and the Labour government took your tariffs down to nearly zero.”
He said financial assistance was required.
When asked by a member of the crowd what he was going to do to help fruit growers, Mr Katter became defensive.
“I went to the parliament and moved labelling laws. There is legislation in parliament right now. You ask your member of parliament why they aren’t voting for it?” he said.
Federal member for Murray Sharman Stone also weighed into the debate, saying more needed to be done on labelling and competition laws.
“Supermarkets have 80 per cent of market power in Australia - we’ve got to look at competition policy,” she said.
“The labelling laws help to confuse consumers, so they don’t know what the Aussie stuff is. It’s a perfect storm and it’s killing our dairy and our fruit industries.”
But the issue was no restricted to the canned fruit industry, with mixed farmer, Robert Belcher, NSW, telling the crowd all farmers were doing it tough.
“All Australians should be made aware of how appalling incomes are for farmers right now,” he said.
“We are still getting - in dollar terms - the sorts of prices we were getting 10 to 15 years ago.
“There is no other sector I know of in Australian economy that is more disadvantaged or poorly treated than farmers.”
He said the problem was a political system that had not made any progress in helping Australian farmers.
“And we’ve got a duopoly that would not be tolerated in other countries,” he said.
“And when it comes down to the arrangements here, no one has touched the subject of profit.
“We are not making the money, so who is?
“Why do we have a political system that fails parliament after parliament?”
He said the Government needed to be able to sort issues like this out.
“You (politicians) are there to fix it,” he said.
“And now you are talking about food security, well I would say that requires a lot of us - and we are going out the door flat out.”
He said the Government was not capable of managing the next generation.
“We have a dog’s breakfast mess and if I am scaring Australia, you need to be scared,” he said.
Northern Victorian dairy farmer Greg Brooks said his sector was suffering at the moment too, largely as a result of the $1 a litre milk in the big supermarkets.
He said if Coles and Woolworths were removed from the processing milk sector, many of the industry’s problems would be eliminated.
He also said he could not understand why clearer branding on Australian food was not happening.
“We just need whoever is in charge to use a common sense approach,” he said.
Margy Osmond, who is the chief executive of the Australian National Retailers Association, was at the debate to represent both Coles and Woolworths.
She said it was important to remember the two retailers held 50 per cent of the fresh food market share, which she said was not the “dominant” position.
“I think we can’t afford to lose sight of the customer in this conversation,” she said.
“Hardly anyone talks about the people who shop.
“And in this day and age, what people are prepared to pay drives much of what is happening in the supermarkets.”
She said retail in Australia employed 1.2 million people, and provided plenty of jobs for regional communities.
“When you talk about a market cap, which shop do you want to shop and who do you want to tell who works in that shop?” Mrs Osmond said.
She also wanted to know why everyone was picking on two Australian companies, and highlighted the fact that the foreign-owned Aldi had grown significantly in the past few years.
In relation to milk, she said farm-gate prices had risen in past month, and a review in 2011 proved that what farmers were paid on farm was not connected to the retail price.
Mrs Osmond said reiterated that affordable food was important to Australians, but supermarkets also valued their relationships with the farming community.
This week Woolworths announced a $7 million deal with SPC Ardmona, which will see the supermarket giant replacing imported fruit for its Woolworths Select range with produce from Goulburn Valley growers.
And she highlighted Coles' 10-year deal with dairy cooperative Murray Goulburn to supply fresh milk, which she said would help to strengthen the future of the dairy industry.
While no firm actions came out of the farmers' election debate, most agreed it was "positive" the issue would get national attention when the event was televised.
