Farmers urge consumers to stop panic-buying groceries as it is hurting vegetable prices - ABC News

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A Queensland farmer is urging consumers to stop panic buying, with erratic behaviour forcing down the price for some vegetables.

Key points:

• Consumers panic buying during COVID-19 has caused an oversupply of some vegetables
• Prices for some fruit and vegetables are below cost of production
• Some farmers have had to mulch crops in the paddock

Steve Kluck grows cabbage, cauliflower and speciality varieties of lettuce near Helidon and said the erratic buying was making it hard for farmers and retailers to forecast demand and supply the right amounts of produce.

Instead he said at times the market had been oversupplied which resulted in very low prices.

"There's so much uncertainty with buyers, one week there's plenty of orders and we're keeping up and the next minute we're basically slashing crop in because the orders are so far down from what they usually are," he said.

"It eased through the middle [of the year] as things calmed down a little bit and then in Queensland this recent virus scare caused a bit of uncertainty and a bit of panic which has definitely impacted supermarket orders.

"Also the food service industry appears to be down about 50 per cent — there's hardly any planes flying, the restaurants aren't at their capacities, so there's a lot of vegetables and stuff that goes into that industry that's now not going in.

"So with the same amount of produce grown, there's an oversupply [of some vegetables] … anytime there's a there's an oversupply, the prices plummet."

Steve Kluck says he has had to leave some of his lettuces in the ground because prices have been so low they are not worth picking.(ABC Rural: Lydia Burton)

Veges selling below cost

Mr Kluck explained staple items like potatoes were less affected, but for cabbages the oversupply had forced prices so low they were selling for below cost of production.

"We'll end up mulching blocks in if we need to, because there is no point keeping the market full of stuff at way below cost price," he said.

"There has been a few times we have chopped bits and pieces in [this year].

"With the lettuce side of things — lettuce don't keep, like cabbage do, in the ground — they are good and then they're not, so if there are no orders we will just [leave them in the ground] which is a shame because it is beautiful stuff."

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Mr Kluck said it would help farmers if consumers stopped panic buying and got back to their normal grocery shopping.

"We as growers grow produce consistently every week of the year at a consistent volume so that there is always fresh produce for consumers," he said.

"So it's tricky when one week there's heaps of orders and then by the time we get another order again, the produce is no good, it's hard to farm around that.

"It would be good from a farmer's perspective if people could be more consistent with their purchasing instead of one week 'yes' and one week 'no'.

"The way the weather is too, beautiful, warm, conditions so things are growing well so there's an abundance of beautiful produce on the shelves so hopefully we see some increased orders for all crops so us farmers can try and catch up."

September 28, 2020 at 06:27AM
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Farmers urge consumers to stop panic-buying groceries as it is hurting vegetable prices - ABC News

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