Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Australian Drought Impacts Food Prices (Additional Reading)
Australian Drought Impacts Food Prices (Additional Reading)
news.com.au
Some farmers have described this crisis as the worse they’ve ever
seen, but experts have warned producers aren’t the only ones who
could feel the impact.
1 of 4 9/21/2020, 6:12 PM
‘It could have a flow on to consumer prices’ about:reader?url=https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/exper...
inflation.
“But exactly what foods will be affected and the timing of that is
really quite hard to determine until after the fact when we can go
back and see how it’s translated into different foods.”
“In the early stages of drought the availability of meat products quite
often increase with farmers offloading stock because they can’t feed
them. So there might be a lot more on the market as the drought
takes hold, but when the season recovers farmers try to build up
numbers again and potentially there could be less stock available
for sale,” he explained.
“Grocery prices are obviously the way that the community overall
feels the impact of drought when it gets severe enough to impact
the availability of food, but before that farmers are obviously the first
and most severely affected.
2 of 4 9/21/2020, 6:12 PM
‘It could have a flow on to consumer prices’ about:reader?url=https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/exper...
“There has been a very reduced grain harvest this year. Australian
farmers export around two-thirds of what they produce because it’s
such a small market, so food security is not an issue.”
“Going forward next year, chances are feed prices are going to be
more expensive for chicken, pork and beef producers who will have
to pay more for their feed including barley, oats and wheat. Their
input into their beef, pork and chicken products are going to get
more expensive and ultimately, it could have a flow on to consumer
prices,” he said.
3 of 4 9/21/2020, 6:12 PM
‘It could have a flow on to consumer prices’ about:reader?url=https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/exper...
“Farmers are a tough, resilient group and we’ll push through this …
but at the end of the day, our farmers produce such amazing quality
food and we need to support them through this time,” he said.
“We cannot make decisions for them about whether they should
buy feed in the hope it will soon rain, or when to sell off stock.
alexis.carey@news.com.au
4 of 4 9/21/2020, 6:12 PM