Farmgate squeeze hurting

That was the main message from NSW sheep and wool producer, Maree Kennedy, to a meeting at Bigga last week attended by about 30 local farmers and graziers across the Southern Tablelands region.

Organised with her husband Shane, the meeting attacked a central theme of farmers being price takers and not price setters, and investigated ways to reverse that basic commercial power structure.

Senior farmer leaders including National Farmers' Federation chief executive Matt Linnegar and NSW Farmers president Fiona Simson and chief executive Matt Brand also attended.

Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce was invited but was unable to attend due to commitments with his new role.

Mrs Kennedy said she would continue to push for a meeting with the Minister and also write to him to discuss various issues raised at the Bigga meeting, given he stated in October that boosting farmgate returns was one of his primary goals in the new job.

Mrs Kennedy gave a passionate presentation to open the meeting, outlining her theories on why sheep and cattle farmers in the Bigga region are facing diminished farmgate returns which has flow-on effects for businesses in the community.

She said all farmers had a “phenomenal” job description, weighed down by expanding regulatory and legal obligations, and growing red tape and other business requirements which produced a social outcome.

Mrs Kennedy said bureaucratic tasks didn't directly contribute to the business' bottom line, especially given the recent steep decline in farmgate returns.

"I'm looking at this issue from a woman's perspective. Our husbands, communities and children are suffering," she said.

"We're working like slaves but not getting paid a fair return for what we do.

"We're feeding 24 million people every day and everybody else is getting paid but not us farmers."

Mrs Kennedy said the situation was dire in her region with some people suffering mental illness as a result.

Her husband presented figures suggesting that sheep graziers received about $80 per head (26 per cent) of the final retail price while wholesalers made $44.62 (14pc) and retailers $307 (60pc).

He said the figures were similar for beef cattle production with graziers making 29pc, wholesalers 7pc and retailers 64pc of the product's final retail value.

"Ours is a wealthy market but we need to get paid a premium for our products - agriculture can't survive on 26pc of the retail value," he said.

"No matter how much it costs farmers to produce the product we're not getting paid enough, but consumers are still paying through the nose.

“I hope today is a small step to get the ball rolling, to change the way profits are shared and make farmers price setters, not price takers.

“We can’t do it individually - we have to do it collectively, as an industry.”

Mrs Kennedy said it was important agri-politicians and political leaders understood the severity of the situation and started taking appropriate action.

"This isn't a doom and gloom day, but we need everybody to take a reality check of the farmers' situation," she said.

Ms Simson echoed the sentiment of the other farm leaders in saying there was no silver bullet or "quick fix" to resolve the farm profitability issues raised at the Bigga forum, with other industry sectors also experiencing the same pressures.

She said the sustained high Australian dollar, high input costs, the supermarket duopoly, competing products being dumped onto the local market produced with the aid of foreign subsidies, and increased red tape were also contributing factors.

Solutions required concerted action and ongoing efforts in a range of areas, including strengthening farm lobbying, she said.

Also among those who attended the meeting were sheep meat and wool producers Alix Turner, Pejar, and Graeme Murray, Laggan.

They said improved market competition was a key to increasing farm profitability.

Mr Turner said higher prices would evolve from having more effective competition in the market and greater supply chain transparency, to see "who's getting what" from the farm gate through to the consumer.

He said Australian farmers operated in a high cost environment but competed against countries with lower standards, which made it difficult to turn a profit.

Mr Murray said the issue of strained profitability was a common story in his region and throughout other farming districts and commodities.

“I’m not sure how you fix this vexed problem but we need to find long-term solutions before we lose too many people from the industry,” he said.