The State’s farmers have raised their concerns about the future of the live export trade to the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF), as the industry’s peak lobby group kicked off its tour of the country to discuss its plans to boost Australian farmgate value to $100 billion.
The NFF attended roundtables at York, Katanning and Perth last week, as part of its national Talking 2030 roadshow, to discuss with growers ways in which Australia can increase farmgate output by 70 per cent over the next 12 years.
The WA meetings were the first of 14 events to be held across the country and as Australia’s largest export State, the prospect of a valuable and sustainable live sheep trade was a hot topic.
NFF chief executive Tony Mahar said farmers at the meetings acknowledged the industry had to step up, but had great concerns about possible short or long-term live export bans.
“They want some surety over what changes are going to be made because I think across the board, farmers saw that footage and that incident as completely unacceptable,” Mr Mahar said.
“They want change, they want their trade to continue but they know that it can’t continue in its current state.”
When asked whether he thought live trade would continue to be a valuable market for Australia in 2030, Mr Mahar said several factors would have an influence.
“It will depend on the market developments, obviously there’s a market for it at the moment,” he said.
“It depends on what we can do as industry to put pressure on parts of the supply chain that have got direct control over this to actually make it sustainable.
“At the moment we’re totally supportive of it, but we think things need to change and industry needs to get control.”
Mr Mahar said there were several other challenges ahead for WA farmers, with telecommunications, salinity and transport costs identified as issues holding back the State’s agricultural growth.
He said finding and retaining labour was a major point of discussion and the industry needed to work harder to sell agriculture as an attractive career pathway.
“We need to work collaboratively as an industry to make sure we communicate the great things that agriculture has got to offer,” Mr Mahar said.
“We also talked about some of the new jobs in agriculture, it’s not just sitting on a tractor or picking fruit, there’s lots of innovation in agriculture that will attract not only young people but new entrants into the industry, so there’s a feeling that we need to do more work on that.”
Konnongorring farmer Tiffany Davey was among those to attend the York workshop.
Ms Davey said the importance of adjusting to a changing climate was highlighted at the event, as well as issues surrounding sustainable agriculture.
“In our discussion, we recognised that we want to continue to grow, but we also want to be sustainable and that is a number one priority for us,” Ms Davey said.
The Talking 2030 roadshow will continue this week, with roundtable events planned in Tasmania tomorrow.
Mr Mahar said talking to people in the farm sector to understand the key issues was a critical step in shaping a strong plan for the coming decade.
“Achieving that sort of growth requires innovative thinking and a clear national roadmap,” Mr Mahar said.
“Talking 2030 is all about testing new ideas with the farming community and agreeing on practical steps our industry can take over the coming decade to maximise our potential.
“We had good support and good energy in WA about having that discussion and what we, as the NFF, can do with our partners and members to drive the future.”
