More crops, less profit: Why Gippsland farmers are at breaking point
New data reveals that farmers are growing more produce while earning less.
Jacob Wallace
February 21, 2025
Organic potato farmer Gordon Jones has been working the land in Warragul South for 47 years.
For the last 20 of those years, he reckoned, the price squeeze on farmers has been intensifying.
“I have experienced the pressure of growing an increasing amount for less profit,” he said. “That was part of the thinking of moving towards more niche marketing.”
In 2015, Jones transitioned from farming everyday potatoes to the organic variety.
“As the market got tighter, we adapted to it; we were trying to avoid getting caught up in the system of growing more for less,” he said. “It’s a self-defeating cycle.”
Gordon Jones at his farm in South Warragul.
Nearly one-third (32 per cent) of Australian vegetable growers were considering leaving the industry due to price pressure on their farm, according to new data from the Ausveg Industry Sentiment Survey. And another third would consider moving on if they were offered a fair price for their farm.
Almost 50 per cent of growers indicated that they were worse off financially than a year ago.
Jones said inflationary pressures during Covid had led to price spikes for fuel, compliance, wages, rent on farming land, seeds and transport costs.
There was a $140 million drop in the farmgate value of vegetables produced in Australia in the 2023-24 financial year, despite an increase in overall production, according to the Horticulture Statistic Handbook.
The handbook supplies annual data on more than 75 horticultural products.
The statistics released by Ausveg show that Australian growers produced 3.83 million tonnes of vegetables in 2023-24, compared to 3.58 million tonnes the previous year.
Yet the increase in production did not lead to an increase in profit, with the production value dropping from $5.84 billion to $5.7 billion.
Ausveg CEO Michael Coote said the data “reflects the experiences of the vegetable growers we speak to each day, who are continuing to face major challenges with a cost-of-production crisis, and struggles securing prices that not only cover their costs but allow them to stay viable by turning a profit”.
After experiencing challenging climate conditions in 2022-23, the majority of vegetable crop types recovered in 2023-24.
But there was a 23 per cent drop in the production of peas; other vegetables with lower production year-on-year were carrots, cabbages, leeks, sweet potatoes and zucchinis.