Australian vegetable industry details cost-of-production crisis in sentiment survey

An ongoing cost-of-production crisis and lack of farm profitability have again led to a third of vegetable growers considering leaving the industry within the next year – with more still indicating they would do the same if offered a fair price to buy their farm according to a new survey from Ausveg.

The results of the peak industry body’s latest Vegetable Industry Sentiment Survey, which was open from December 2024 to February 2025, saw a continuation of a concerned sentiment that has been regularly recorded in the six-monthly surveys conducted since 2023.

According to Ausveg, the key findings continue to raise major questions about the future supply of Australian-grown fresh vegetables.

These include statics such as an average of 32 percent of growers across all sentiment surveys since 2023 considering leaving the industry. An additional third of growers in the most recent survey not currently considering leaving would change that position if they were offered a fair price to sell their farm – meaning two thirds of growers surveyed would stop growing vegetables if the right exit strategy arose.

Almost 50 percent of growers were again financially worse-off than a year ago and almost 40 percent of growers expected to be financially worse-off in another year’s time, compared to 28 percent in the middle of 2024.

The survey revealed growers are also continuing to delay or reduce investing in capital infrastructure improvements (81 per cent), innovation and productivity improvements (56 per cent) and maintenance of assets (46 per cent).

Rising input costs, poor farmgate returns, workforce shortages, industrial relations changes, lack of funds to invest in innovation, and an overwhelming compliance burden were identified as the key factors leading growers to reconsider their futures.

Ausveg chief executive Michael Coote said the protracted toll of the dire business environment on growers also saw mental health and wellbeing concerns feature prominently in considerations to leave the industry in the most recent survey. 

“With one third of Australian vegetable growers continuing to tell us they are thinking about closing up shop, selling the farm or switching to other agricultural pursuits – and more still saying they would consider it if someone made a genuine offer for their business – the current inhospitable business environment is clearly taking a major financial, personal and health toll,” said Coote.

“We talk to large, medium and small vegetable growers around the country every day – and for many the relentless pressure is proving too much. We know some vegetable growers have already left the industry – and others will follow unless business conditions improve. For others, it has only been the lack of viable alternatives that has kept them producing vegetables. For those remaining, anecdotally we know that many are reducing vegetable production capacity and diversifying into alternative income streams.

“Losing vegetable growers at anywhere near the scale indicated by our surveys has catastrophic implications for future vegetable supply – it would cause consumer prices to increase and threaten our food security in the longer term,” he added.

“As a country we need to consider how important it is to have a reliable supply of domestically grown fresh vegetables, because failing to act on these threats to our national vegetable industry will have major and far-reaching consequences.”