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Why your grocery bill is about to get even more expensive as farmers see their fruit and vegetable crops submerged again
- Widespread flooding in Australia will push fruit and vegetable prices up again
- Agriculture Secretary Murray Watt warned farms were ‘very hard hit’
- Floods have devastated parts of Victoria and NSW with more rain on the way
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Consumers are warned that the price of fruit and vegetables could rise after flooding in NSW and Victoria’s hit key farming areas.
Agriculture Secretary Murray Watt joined Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday to assess flood damage around Forbes in central western NSW.
He told a media conference that the main agricultural regions have been “very hard hit by the repeated flooding”.
“It is likely that these floods will have an impact on people’s living costs due to the impact of fruit and vegetable prices,” Mr Watt said.
The Department of Agriculture is trying to figure out the financial impact flooding in parts of NSW and Victoria will have on agricultural production.
“I think we can expect it to have a very big impact on the dollar… we don’t have exact dollar numbers, but we’re definitely working on it,” said Mr. Watt.
Agriculture Secretary Murray Watt warned food prices could rise after widespread flooding
The federal and state governments are also discussing additional support for affected farmers.
In northern Victoria, where the water continues to rise, farmers are calculating the cost.
Emma Germano, president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, said it is too early to say what the full impact would be on food availability and prices.
“Floods have had a major impact on many parts of the agricultural industry,” she told AAP on Monday.
“There will be significant impact and disruption across our supply chain in the coming months.”
Floods have hit communities across Victoria, including Shepparton (pictured) in the north of the state. The regional city is an agricultural hub
Grocery bills are expected to rise again thanks to the floods
Farmers in Victoria had been expecting a great winter crop, but analysts say they are now seeing volume and quality declines due to the heavy rainfall.
RaboBank released its Australian winter crop forecast on Monday, which showed that there has been a significant impact on yields of low-lying crops with many submerged waters in central and northern Victoria.
“While Victoria was on track to break production records until last week, we will have to wait for all the predicted rainfall to come through and the water to recede to see the full impact,” RaboBank’s Dennis Voznesenski said.
“Due to the unfavorable conditions, the harvest will probably be delayed until January,” he said.
Flooding in parts of both NSW and Victoria has resulted in washed-out fields and unharvestable crops.
“The biggest impacts in Victoria are expected in the low country … there are literally crops completely submerged,” Mr Voznesenski told AAP.
He said NSW had already suffered from flooding from excessive rainfall earlier in the year.
“Winter crops such as wheat, barley and canola had already degraded in NSW and we could see even more cropland now being degraded,” he said.