Aussies can soon expect to pay more for their groceries, Australia\u2019s peak farming body has warned, as the Middle East war continues to wreak havoc on supply chains.<\/p>\n
The US-Israeli war on Iran, now in its fourth week, has seen refined fuel prices skyrocket as Iran continues to effectively block oil supply through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
As of March 17, Australia had 30 days of diesel, 38 days of petrol and 30 days of jet fuel.<\/p>\n
National Farmers\u2019 Federation (NFF) President Hamish McIntyre said many farmers are struggling to get fuel and freight companies which transport goods are having to absorb the price hike, despite the government tapping into its emergency fuel supply to cushion the impact of the crisis. <\/p>\n
Dairy products will be among the first to see prices skyrocket, followed by fresh produce.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe estimate in a matter of weeks we\u2019ll start to see the costs flow through to the consumers on supermarket shelves,\u201d he said, as per ABC News. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts with dairy, then our fruit and veg, and in any of our intensive animal industries too.\u201d<\/p>\n
National Road Transport Association agreed the increase in fuel prices will also flow to customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome the 21st of April when a lot of the fuel bills start to come in, and the fuel price will have increased steadily to then, we\u2019re going to see some major changes in this freight industry,\u201d he told ABC\u2019s Radio National.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see (food) prices increase dramatically.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the only way that people can grasp how bad this situation is \u2014 when they go down to their supermarkets and shops, the stuff\u2019s just not there to buy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Food production could be \u2018halved\u2019 <\/p>\n
It comes as Mr McIntyre warned Australia could see its food production \u201chalved\u201d within months in a nightmare scenario. <\/p>\n
The western Queensland farmer, who grows wheat, barley and chick peas, told news.com.au he believes there is enough urea, which is used as fertiliser, on ships and within Australia to secure the winter crop. <\/p>\n
Prices for urea have roughly doubled $870 per tonne near the end of February to more than $1225 as of March 15, with reports of up to $1600 in some regions already \u2014 blowing through highs of around $1300 at the start of the Ukraine war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we don\u2019t have is enough to apply in-crop and get set up for summer crops,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can\u2019t get our in-crop requirements after May, the winter crop in Australia could be halved.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he warned around 40 per cent of Australia\u2019s farmers may not be able to plant at all.<\/p>\n
Large growers lock in urea orders ahead of time, but smaller spot operators essentially \u201cwait until it rains to decide\u201d what crop to plant and \u201cring up and order their fertiliser with their seed from their local supplier\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than likely they will not get access to urea,\u201d Mr McIntyre said. \u201cIt\u2019s that serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a worst-case scenario \u201cwe\u2019re looking at a massive reduction in production of winter crop, then we\u2019re potentially very worried about securing next year\u2019s summer crop as well\u201d.<\/p>\n
The NFF says any fuel rationing plan should put essential services first, followed by food production.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerishable dairy, then fresh vegetables, then intensive animal industries \u2014 chicken, pork, red meat \u2014 then the grain production sector,\u201d Mr McIntyre said.<\/p>\n
\u2018More hard decisions\u2019<\/p>\n
Michael Coote, chief executive of Ausveg, said vegetable growers had \u201cno capacity to absorb\u201d the increased costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cVegetable growers heavily rely on diesel to run their farms and have already seen the price double with increasing reports of shortages in regions across the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Coote said fertiliser suppliers have also \u201cdoubled some prices over the past two weeks with questions over future supply, and concerns have been raised over supply and cost of other key inputs like plastics for packaging as the manufacturing industry sounds the alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unless vegetable growers receive \u201cviable farmgate prices, we\u2019ll see more making hard decisions about their future farming activities\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowers across the country are reporting to Ausveg that they are seriously considering whether to plant or harvest crops, with some growers making these decisions as early as this week,\u201d Mr Coote said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith 98 per cent of fresh vegetables consumed in Australia grown here, any significant reduction in crop volumes will impact the harvest and supply of fresh produce to Australian families. The potential likelihood of vegetable shortages will be further impacted with international shipping disruptions also likely to affect the supply of imported frozen and other processed vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aussies can soon expect to pay more for their groceries, Australia\u2019s peak farming body has warned, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[177708,12587,183740,5545,2300,85,2652,183748,138,13882,183747,65,183760,20458,219,49391,183741,2024,183761,145432,183749,17574,183743,25029,183744,9499,183742,183737,183756,183753,183755,183751,16609,136327,183757,183752,2648,111,139,181009,64,13902,69,2659,25033,183746,183754,129285,3654,183750,183758,183759,176219,181014,3461,13883,183739,183738,2821,183745],"class_list":["post-344773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-abc-news-inc","tag-america","tag-animal-industries","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-asia","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-brendan-radke","tag-business","tag-chief-executive","tag-controversial-map-uncovers","tag-donald-trump","tag-drive-grocery-prices","tag-eastern-europe","tag-economy","tag-energy-infrastructure","tag-essential-services","tag-europe","tag-farming-activities","tag-fatih-birol","tag-food-price-warning","tag-food-production","tag-fresh-vegetables","tag-fuel-crisis","tag-fuel-rationing-plan","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-grain-production-sector","tag-grim-food-price","tag-hamish-mcintyre","tag-ian-waldie","tag-imminent-grocery-price","tag-international-shipping-disruptions","tag-iran","tag-manufacturing-industry","tag-map-uncovers-solution","tag-michael-coote","tag-new-south-wales","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nightmare-scenario","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-nz","tag-oceania","tag-oil-prices","tag-peak-farming-body","tag-petrol-stations-run","tag-price-hikes","tag-queensland","tag-refined-fuel-prices","tag-road-transport-association","tag-service-stations","tag-southern-asia","tag-supermarket-shelves","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-vegetable-growers","tag-viable-farmgate-prices","tag-victoria","tag-winter-crop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}