Tis The Season To Tighten Belts, Mate!
Food production costs are on the rise as drought continues to worsen for the lower two-thirds of Australia. As much as ninety-four percent of New South Wales is now experiencing water shortage due to lack of rain. Queensland is a little better off at 61%. The Queensland Farmer’s Federation’s John Cherry predicts that grain prices will increase as produce yield decreases, resulting in higher dairy and poultry prices.
‘Significant price increases’ for chicken meat are expected by poultry farmers as grain prices continue to increase. Grains are a major part of chicken feed and makes up for 60% of production costs.
“The two predominant grains in chicken feed, wheat and sorghum, account for approximately 65 percent of the feed, with corn, barley, oats, proteins and vitamins making up the balance. With the unprecedented rise in the cost of grain, chicken producers are experiencing a substantial increase in production costs,” said Dr Andreas Dubs, executive director of the association.
Aside from dairy and poultry products, pork prices are also on the rise. Primo Meats in Port Wakefield, one of South Australia’s largest pork processors, said that meat prices are also expected to increase during the holidays. Aside from shortage of stock due to infertility problems and a poor season, the current jump in grain prices also added to production costs.
Although the cost will be passed on to consumers, livestock manager Greg Richter says that the producers won’t be making much more profit off of it.
“I think they need those sorts of prices to balance out the feed costs, so it’s not as if they’re going to make a huge profit on high prices, it just all balances out,” he said.
The Australian Federal government have released AU$210 million in drought assistance for retailers and small businesses that are dependent on farming. New South Wales dams are currently on 26% compared to 56% last year. Ironically, the upper third of Queensland have been graced with too much rain.
