GrainGrowers believes today’s announcement is a good start and more can be done to help deliver premium prices for Australia’s premium grain crops and address the significant burden growers face due to the 80.5% tariffs imposed on Australian barley by China.
Agriculture Minister Littleproud, Trade Minister Tehan and Assistant Minister Duniam announced a $72.7 million package to help expand and diversify export markets in 2021.
GrainGrowers Chairman Brett Hosking says growers are bearing the brunt of the crippling tariffs, and while today’s announcement is welcomed further investment is needed from the Federal Government.
“We acknowledge that this package is a start, within the package there are only limited funds allocated to programs to increase market access for all of agriculture so the opportunity for further investment is promising.”
“The grains industry alone will miss out on $2.5 billion dollars over the next 5 years from the loss of the Chinese barley market. We support both the Agriculture and Trade Ministers to make it a priority to boost funding to find alternative markets that growers can sell their grain to." Hosking said.
The funding should be used to address short term concerns for Australian malt barley as well as increasing feed grain opportunities in the region while also looking at domestic opportunities to value add.
“Australian growers have produced a bumper crop this year after a couple of lean years, and growers want a fair return for the high-quality product they produce. We look forward to working with Government in 2021 to ensure farmers don’t carry the burden of foreign trade matters.” Hosking said.
