Fair go for farmers or else, supermarket giants told

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The federal government is preparing to crack down on supermarkets, retailers and processors who deal unfairly with farmers, or who exploit and bully them.


Releasing the cabinet-­approved green paper on agriculture yesterday, federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said he was determined to see farmers — in what is looming as a “golden era” for agriculture — given a greater share of the final retail price for food paid by consumers.
Mr Joyce said it was unjust, unfair and unacceptable that farmers, who produce the food enjoyed by Australians and 60 million consumers overseas, were paid an ­average of 10 per cent of the final price.
The green paper recommends strengthening the powers of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and introducing legislation to allow courts to order a large monopoly or duopoly to divest of holdings if any company is found to have abused its market power or engaged in “unconscionable conduct”. The ACCC is currently engaged in court action against Coles over its alleged treatment of suppliers.
Mr Joyce said he had been shocked by reports of the ACCC’s action against Coles, about how the retailer had allegedly forced small suppliers and farmers to pay extra charges and penalties to keep their products on its shelves.
“What is being paid back to the producer is not a fair return and sometimes is the result of an ­exploitative situation where two players work together to the ­exclusion of market principles,” Mr Joyce said.
“No one makes a return at the farm gate if the mechanisms of commerce downstream are controlled in monopolies or ­oligopolies that can detect and ­absorb all margins beyond the basic one required to motivate supply, otherwise known as survival. A farmer that gets between 10 and 15 per cent of the final price when they’ve done the majority of the work; (that) is inherently unfair.”
Addressing the annual conference of the National Farmers Federation in Canberra, Mr Joyce said family farms were the “cornerstone” of rural and regional Australia. He praised farmers, saying they were engaged in a “good and noble occupation” and said the way a nation treated its farmers was a “litmus test” of the political system.
With many of Australia’s 134,000 farms (95 per cent are family owned and operated) finding it hard to make a profit and struggling to survive, Mr Joyce said the government’s agricultural policy paper was “seminal” to finding solutions. In the 1950s, farmers received about half of the retail prices of the food they grew and produced, while in 1900 as much as 90 per cent of the sale price went back to the farmgate.
“(Solving) the puzzle relies on expanding the profitability of agricultural output by Australian farming families,” Mr Joyce said. “We have a choice here — what is the price we offer back to those who tend the land? There is still a lot of money in agriculture today; it’s just that different people get it. We need to produce a premium product for a premium price and that premium must flow back through the farmgate if we are to get a reinvestment in our farm land (and) keep Australian people on our land.”
Mr Joyce said he wanted more farmers to form co-operatives. He said it was no coincidence that Australia’s two biggest agricultural companies were grower-owned co-operatives; dairy processor Murray Goulburn and grain handling giant CBH.
The green paper proposes the adoption of National Co-operatives Law to make it easier for co-operatives to operate across state boundaries.
It also suggests the issuing of government bonds to finance agricultural infrastructure. The bonds could help fund the 27 new dam and irrigation proposals contained in the green paper, as well as road, rail and port infrastructure.
Another proposal is for tax deductions for on-farm ­irrigation improvements and agricultural R&D investment and tax concessions.
 
Source: The Australian

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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