CEO says 'Feeding Australia' policy is insufficient; NRF must do more; food infrastructure projects should attract tax incentives; and calls for bipartisan support to keep Australian food on Australian plates.
WITHCOTT, Australia, March 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Colin Dorber, CEO of Lockyer Valley Foods, a proposed circular economy food and vegetable processing facility in Queensland, is calling for both sides of Government to "put their money where their mouths are" in response to Anthony Albanese's 'Buy Australian' call this week.
Mr Dorber is calling on the Labor Government to substantially increase its commitment to the 'Feeding Australia' policy; commit National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) investment to re-shoring food manufacturing; for food infrastructure projects to be fast-tracked through special investment designations; and both sides to pledge bipartisan support for Australian agriculture.
"It's all very well to ask consumers to buy Australian, but when the Government is only paying lip service to supporting our farmers, and retailers are chasing the lowest prices around the world, individual action is not going to get us anywhere," Mr Dorber said. "The Government must restore food sovereignty to this country and fix the crisis that is seeing farming industries dwindling or disappearing altogether, and they must act now or it will be too late."
Mr Dorber called into question the seriousness of Labor's $3.5 million 'Feeding Australia' pledge. "$3.5 million dollars to create a 'plan' does not sound like actual support for farmers and growers to me," he said. "Let's do the maths: 3 million tonnes of fruit and veggies go to waste every year, and the average price of veggies today is around $5/kg – fruit is more. So very conservatively, in the next two hours, $3.47 million worth of fresh Australian produce will be wasted due to policy failures. The Government is pledging two hours' worth of fruit and veggie waste to fix our national food supply? I don't think so."
He also called on Government to ensure the NRF was supporting critical food supplies, and to create a special 'essential development' designation for food infrastructure projects, providing not just financial investment, but also tax incentives to drive more private investment and fast-track infrastructure builds.
"This is exactly what the NRF should be for," he said. "Beetroot is a prime example – last year we had a canned beetroot shortage because we're so reliant on imports and why? Because there's nowhere to can beetroot where the stuff is actually grown," he said. "All our fruit and vegetable processing plants are decades old and owned by US, Canadian and other overseas interests – and if you can't see why that's a problem then you shouldn't be making agricultural policy."
Mr Dorber said the current geopolitical climate had forced the problems of globalisation on to centre stage – and nowhere were these more pressing than in our food supply.
"Did you know that up to 88% of any given crop we grow may be left to rot in the field, because the produce doesn't fit 'perfection' standards for supermarkets?" he said. "And because there's nowhere to have those crops processed into frozen, canned or other products, the farmer loses 88% of their income and Australians lose 88% of the fresh, homegrown food they could have enjoyed – it's an absolute disgrace but the good news is, there are plenty of people like us ready to fix this."
According to Freshlogic, fresh vegetable prices were up almost 25% at the end of 2024. With one in three fruit and vegetable considering leaving the industry due to economic pressures, these issues are only likely to worsen without decisive intervention.
"The movement must start now – a powerful bipartisan movement to reclaim ownership of Australia's food supply for Australians," Mr Dorber said. "That means bringing manufacturing back; bringing support for farmers and growers back, and growing and processing the food we need right here in Australia. If that's not a matter of national pride, I don't know what is."