FARMERS have told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) of their financial strains regarding poor payment practices by wholesale market operators.
While the scheduled two-hour meeting in Bundaberg yesterday was closed to the media, those who attended reported "some dreadful tales" being told of slow or even no payments for shipments of sweetpotatoes sent to the Melbourne Markets.
About 40 people attended the meeting with the vast majority being horticulture growers from the Bundaberg region.
The ACCC's agriculture commissioner Mick Keogh, who heads up the Agriculture Enforcement and Engagement Unit, was the listening ear to the growers' concerns.
Mr Keogh took up the specially created role in February this year.
He said from his time in the job so far, concerns from within the horticulture sector were echoed across the country.
"It's interesting though that from Western Australia to here, you run into these same issues," he said.
Central to the ongoing discussion surrounding the grower to wholesaler supply chain has been the Horticulture Code of Conduct.
"The Horticulture Code, which was created in 2008, aims to create some clarity around that and the reason there was a review of it was that it obviously hasn't been effective for a number of reasons," Mr Keogh said.
"It's now at the point where the incoming government will need to make some decisions on that."
He said the shear breadth of issues which the ACCC covers, including electricity pricing, telecommunications access and pricing, freight, water pricing and the range of industry codes makes it vital for rural industries to engage with.
"So you have this very broad portfolio of issues where the horticulture sector is fairly directly involved with those issues," he said.
It is up to the grower to make sure documentation is accurate from their end, and send produce appropriately.
- Shane Schnitzler, Fresh State, Melbourne
The Bundaberg meeting came about after recent media reports of at least eight Bundaberg sweetpotato growers being short-changed to the tune of $2 million from Melbourne Markets agents.
It's a claim the markets reacted to, labelling it inaccurate and putting the credibility of the central market system into disrepute.
Melbourne wholesalers are represented by Fresh State.
Fresh State president Shane Schnitzler said the Melbourne Market consists of a large number of wholesalers who trade produce based on great relationships and commercial integrity.
“It is up to the grower to make sure documentation is accurate from their end, and send produce appropriately," Mr Schnitzler said.
“It is also the grower’s job to make sure payments are made within trading terms and if not, to either stop sending consignments or make other arrangements with the wholesaler”.
He said there was a trend from some growers to send unsolicited consignments of sweetpotatoes to wholesalers even when the wholesaler asked them to stop sending.
Bundaberg sweetpotato grower Ben Prichard of Mr B Fresh said he was owed $280,000 at one point from a single agent.
He rejected the Melbourne Markets suggestion of unwanted produce being sent to the trading floor.
"That's not the case but even if it was, don't you pay the person? Isn't the produce sold and well and truly gone?" Mr Prichard said.
"I had no phone call saying they'd thrown the produce out so as far as I'm concerned, that doesn't make any difference whatsoever- the money should be in the account."
Mr Prichard said the agent in question has since entered voluntary liquidation.
"They usually set these companies up so they don't actually own any assets. So when you wind them up there is nothing there to get," Mr Prichard said.
The ACCC has held a series of regional workshops in Shepparton, Victoria, Toowoomba, Qld, Bunbury, WA and Griffith, NSW, speaking with people in the horticulture and viticulture industries about the competition and fair-trading issues affecting them.
Remaining workshops are scheduled for Murray Bridge, SA next Monday and East Devonport, Tasmania on September 1.
Ashley Walmsley
Ashley Walmsley is the editor of ACM's only national, fresh produce magazine, Good Fruit & Vegetables, while also covering horticulture stories for the agricultural papers and websites. He also writes the weekly, The Ringer, column in the Qld Country Life.
Ashley Walmsley is the editor of ACM's only national, fresh produce magazine, Good Fruit & Vegetables, while also covering horticulture stories for the agricultural papers and websites. He also writes the weekly, The Ringer, column in the Qld Country Life.
