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Weak demand and oversupply make vege growers grim

Australia's vegetable growers are experiencing a "race to the bottom" with an oversupply of produce and weak consumer demand resulting in a slide in prices.

Released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, quarterly inflation figures show that vegetable prices have dropped 5.7 percent in the last three months of 2012.

The Australian spoke with a third-generation brussel sprouts grower from Adelaide Hills, John Cranwell, who said "It doesn't surprise me at all to hear that, because it has been really terrible the last couple of years.

"When demand is low and supply is high it is a race to the bottom, and producers are trying to pinch sales off everybody else and each other."

Deputy chief executive of Ausveg, Willian Churchill, said that in recent times Aussie growers, in general, haven't experienced some of the adverse weather events that have affected them in previous year, but are suffering from a drop in demand by consumers.

Churchill isn't expecting further price drops this year. claiming that a tightening in supply should see prices rise again.

 

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