Andrew Kay
Thursday, October 3rd 2024
Andrew Journal

You’ve made good money the last couple of years, so you won’t mind if we don’t pay you anything for the next 12 months.”

It’s hard to imagine many business owners accepting this offer and certainly not the employee whose bank account is topped up every fortnight in a PAYG arrangement. Yet I’ve heard this sentiment expressed about the dire scenario facing businesses working across the agricultural sector. The implication being that those working the land should make hay while the sun shines” and be grateful for it when it comes.

Across our state, our agricultural sector is facing significant seasonal challenges. I’ve travelled through our regions in the past few months and seen the impact of lack of rain, which has sometimes felt at odds with the conditions we have experienced in Adelaide. The good people of the fertile South-East reacquainted me with the expression green drought” telling stories of hay being shipped from across the border because locals could not grow their own feed.

In other regions, crops won’t be sown this year and livestock is being sold off rather than incurring the additional cost of feeding the animals.

Like many primary producers, the wine community has been devastated by frost. I’ve spoken to a winery that lost 100% of their estate, while losses in the vicinity of 60 – 80% are not uncommon in some regions. To believe this is nature’s way of addressing a structural oversupply is both simplistic and ill-informed. There is still strong demand for our grape varieties and the investment made by growers and wineries needs to be recouped.

Meanwhile our tomato growers – and related industries such as capsicum and chillies – are either locked out of markets or threatened due to the national and international restrictions being placed on supply out of South Australia linked to the highly contagious tomato brown rugose fruit virus. Their livelihoods are under threat and workers have lost their jobs.

Businesses operating in our agricultural community feel their plight is not being heard or taken seriously by government. For a sector that contributed $18.5bn to the state’s coffers last year, Agriculture seems to be getting lost in the state’s messaging about what drives the South Australia economy.

While I appreciate an image of a farmer driving a header may not capture the imagination like an astronaut in a space suit, a warship crashing through the waves, or a street party lighting up the East End, it is who we are and will continue to play a critical part in our role as the nation’s food bowl.

If you think an affiliation with technology should earn sectors like Defence, Space, Renewables, Biomed etc, greater attention in the 21st century, spend a few minutes with the smart operators across meat, wine, dairy, fruit, nuts – in fact any agricultural producer. You will learn of the massive role advanced technology is playing to find innovative solutions to tackle climate challenges, drive productivity and improve global competitiveness.

This approach is a survival mechanism for an industry that battles climate, market conditions, trade tensions and the role of price taker every single day.

As the saying goes, Let’s not waste a good crisis.” The season may be a disaster, but it is also an opportunity to shine the spotlight on the value of this sector, its businesses and community. That may take shape through policy reform, government support initiatives or simply appreciation and understanding. 

For all it provides South Australia, this is an industry we should nurture and treasure, not cheer on in the good years and turn away from in the bad.

Author

Andrew Kay

Chief Executive Officer
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