Aaron Bunch
West Australian shoppers are likely to pay more for fruit and vegetables in the coming months after a massive cyclone ravaged a food bowl region.
Skyrocketing diesel prices will add to their pain at the cash register.
Tropical Cyclone Narelle slammed into WA’s north-west in late March, leaving a trail of destruction through towns and rural properties.
The state’s food bowl at Carnarvon, about 900 kilometres north of Perth, was hard hit by the storm, which peaked in its fury as a category four near the coastal town of Exmouth.
Carnarvon Growers Association President Phil Frzop said flooding caused by the cyclone had severely impacted plantations in the western end of the town.
“It’s a $110 million industry, and a lot of that’s gone probably until the middle of the year,” he said.
“Production will be way down, and that’ll have a huge impact on the supermarkets.”
The Carnarvon region supplies about 60 per cent of the state’s fresh produce during the winter months and 80 per cent of bananas.
The produce grown in the area includes tomatoes, pumpkins, capsicums, avocados, asparagus, bananas, melons and stone fruit.
“For the first few months, the impact will be substantial,” Frzop said.
Narelle followed Tropical Cyclone Mitchell and an extreme heat event earlier in the year, both of which also impacted crops and infrastructure in the Carnarvon area.
The weather events were so close together many business operators were still in recovery mode as they battened down ahead of Narelle.
Curtin University agri-food supply chain expert Elizabeth Jackson said the big supermarket chains would look to source fruit and vegetables usually supplied by Carnarvon growers from interstate or overseas.
The longer supply chain would force up prices, she said.
“What’s going to hit even harder and is another nail in the coffin in terms of our cost of living is the price of transport on top of where this fresh fruit and veg is going to be sourced from,” she said.
“Every kilojoule of food that is produced and moved off a farm in this country does so because of diesel.”
Holiday town Exmouth, 1250 kilometres north of Perth, was lashed by 250km/h winds as Narelle passed.
Buildings were destroyed, roofs were torn off homes, trees and fences were felled, power was lost, roads were cut and rural properties were flooded and damaged.
Tourism businesses in the town, which is the gateway to the Ningaloo Reef and remains closed to most visitors, have also been impacted.
AAP
