I'm not sure whether this belongs in General Discussion or under Politics...
I guess there are not many votes in supporting our farmers while we can buy in food more cheaply, but if it means thirld world populations suffer famine while their food is being sold to us it is a concern, and circumstances may arise where importing food cheaply is no longer as viable...
http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com/articl ... ng-clearer
Making product pricing clearer - Reporter: Helen Wellings - Broadcast Date: July 17, 2009
A plan to letting you know how much the farmer get out of the retail price of fresh produce is on the table but will supermarkets really want you to know?
From the farm gate to your shopping trolley, we know the price of food soars, but by how much is a well-kept secret that the supermarkets do not want you to know.
Parliamentarian and Griffith orange farmer, Tony Catanzariti, said over a four-year period food prices rose on average 17.8 per cent while the average prices farmers received rose 2.3 per cent.
While he ends up with a mere 20c/kg for his oranges, we pay $3.80/kg. The retail price is almost 2000 per cent more than the farm gate price.
"You can't survive and this is the danger that we have in Australia today," he said.
"Unless the farmer is kept viable, we are going to not be able to grow food for Australia.
"We will be importing food from third world countries."
The answer, according to Choice and farmers groups, is a website comparing the average supermarket price with the price the farmer gets.
Such a website would also reveal how retail chains, which want to appear farmer-friendly, really treat growers.
We asked the supermarket chains what they thought of a website disclosing farm gate prices.
Woolworths firmly dismissed it telling us: "the website idea might have worked OK in the Soviet Union in the '70s but it would be impossible and probably anti-competitive to have such a thing in Australia."
Another plan which farmers' groups are pushing is enacting laws to make supermarkets disclose alongside the shelf price, the farm gate price. This has been done in France.
Craig Kelly from the Retailers' Association said we pay $2.24 for a litre of milk but the farmer gets around 28 cents.
"Milk for example, the price the farmer gets today is less than what he received 20 years ago but the retail price what the supermarket is charging has gone up over 100 per cent in the same period of time," Craig said.
"It's the same with eggs, again the farmer is receiving the same price as 20 years ago, yet we've seen over 100 per cent increase in the retail price."
The farm gate price for a dozen eggs is around $1, we pay $4.10.
Tasmanian vegetable farmer Mike Badcock has been pushing for many years for better prices for farmers.
While he gets 55c/kg, we pay around $4.70/kg for frozen peas, he gets 45c/kg for green beans, we pay $5/kg.
Brown onions, the farmer gets 19c/kg, we pay a national average of $2.83/kg.
Broccoli, $1.10/kg for the farmer, we pay around $5/kg.
Farmers get 20c/kg for carrots, we pay $2.15/kg at the supermarket.
And potato farmers receive 13c/kg while we pay $2.43/kg
