Regional Foods and Health Seminar

The Western Australian Agriculture industry operates in a global market. Most of its products are exported - prices are set by international trade. Large supermarket chains and trading houses buy products based on price and quality from anywhere in the world. The world consumer wants products year round regardless of where they are from. That is why you will find Western Australian oranges in the shop at one time, then South Australian oranges another time and Californian at other seasons. At the same time Australian oranges go to California during their off-season.

This international competitiveness means we are competing with countries like China, Africa, South America and USA and Europe and generally this means low prices for farmers. The farmer is also caught by high costs of imported machinery, chemicals and fertilisers. Locally they face high prices for land and services. A true cost price squeeze.

The Department of Agriculture is about producing quality food. It is about reducing threats to agriculture and achieving this. It is about retaining and maintaining the natural resource assets that allow production. It has a target to produce eight billion dollars of agriculture exports by 2008. It does this by chasing international markets, producing new varieties giving better quality and yield. It encourages value adding, for example exporting bread mix rather than wheat. It also operates the quarantine system to ensure plant and animal disease does not come into the State. None of us want to see foot and mouth disease introduced into our country. That is why you see the beagle dogs at the airports sniffing out fruit and meat. Threats such as salinity are impacting on our capacity to produce crops in some areas. There are large programs in place to reduce this threat. The cost of environmental repair is not costed into food prices.

Unlike some countries we do not face a shortage of good quality nutritious food.

The issue for us is about affordability of this good quality food and access to the outlets. It is also about the world trend to move away from cooking at home and to rely on take-a-ways and restaurant meals. The increased competition for our time and the need for multiple income earners in a family are partly driving this trend. The meal is more about not going hungry rather than ensuring it is balanced nutritionally. Many of these issues have planning and social solutions some of which will be dealt with here.

Supply and demand determines prices. This applies equally to land as it does to food. Western Australians have had a real love affair with the ‘quarter acre’ block. This has resulted in a rapidly spreading suburban sprawl. This has been compounded more recently with the demand for lifestyle blocks (1-5 hectares). The price offered by developers (and ultimately the homeowner) is such that farming cannot compete. Thus over the last few decades we have seen market gardens at Gwelup move to south Wanneroo then to North Wanneroo and now to Gingin. Similarly this has occurred in the southern suburbs. Where there was once farmland there are now houses.

The impact of this landuse conflict is two fold. The orchards and market gardens are moving further from the centre of the city and the consumer is more dis-associated from the source of the food but also an area that can produce vegetables year round is being permanently removed from production. A scarce resource – this is likely to mean importing products from other states during some seasons.

A solution is to ensure planning to protect that land for long-term agriculture use and to make it more attractive to growers to resist the move. To that end the Department of Agriculture is working with organisations like the Wanneroo City Council to prevent the loss of more land by changing the Town Planning Scheme. However the pressure to prevent this is strong. Support from people such as you can help hold the line.

Most of the fresh food is sold through supermarkets or local stores. The products sold have come from the central markets, manufacturers or importers – through a chain of wholesalers to the retail outlet. This has mostly involved a lot of transport. For example the apples from Manjimup are harvested, trucked to the packing shed, trucked to storage, then to the wholesaler and then to the retailer. Often the product is transported past the house it will be consumed in on its way to and from the points in the supply chain. For example the orange from Gingin will pass Wanneroo on the way to Canning Vale markets then again on its way to Joondalup before the Wanneroo householder buys the product and brings it home.

During all this moving around the supply chain costs are increased as each level takes out costs and a profit margin. For example milk might cost 18c per litre to produce, the processor pays about 25 cents, transport, processing, packaging, levy and retail margins see it on the shelf for than $1.10 per litres. This would suggest that there is scope for better prices for growers and cheaper prices for consumers if stages can be removed.

Transport costs keep people from fresh food sources where it may be cheaper. It is generally not practical to bring the individual consumer closer to the producer. The sheer cost and time required makes this prohibitive on anything other than a rare occasion.

It is a little more practical to bring groups of individual consumers closer to some fresh food. In some countries ‘subscription farming’ or some variation is used. Here groups of people link to one or more farmers and agree to buy all their food needs from that grower. They agree to the type of vegetables and the quality and a price. They may agree to provide labour to reduce costs. Generally the product is than delivered to one central point and the group divides the products to its members. This is a win-win situation for both parties.

The grower gets more for his product and is probably able to sell his whole crop – particularly the lower grades. He may reduce costs by getting seasonal assistance from the members. The consumers get fresh harvested vegetables and fruit at an acceptable price - generally lower than what is paid in the shop. The community at large gains because the spin off is reduced stress levels and a broader understanding of the source of food. In Japan these operations are common and the total membership runs into millions

When I was a kid, food delivery was a normal part of food purchases. The vegetable truck came through weekly. The bread truck came through daily and the milkman was a daily occurrence. We even had a smallgoods supplier come weekly. Access was simple.

The idea of a Farmer Market is also starting to develop. This has re-emerged in USA and in Europe with some limited occurrence in Australia. Here groups of genuine growers bring their product to specific locations in the urban area and sell from the back of the truck. With some careful planning the full range of household needs can be catered for. Again links develop with customers, direct access is obtained by consumers to fresh product and the producer gets a better return than selling to the wholesaler

Alternatives include box systems, buyer cooperatives, direct marketing etc.

Not to be underestimated is the ability for the consumer to grow some products themselves. Either in the ‘veggie patch’, garden, and verandah or in community operated gardens. The Department of Agriculture has a very good vegetable-growing handbook for local conditions.

Growing fruit and vegetables at home is therapeutic, gives access to fresh produce, reduces the lawns around the city and can reduce costs significantly. My garden has no lawn. At last count it has 25 fruit trees including mangoes, lemons, grapes, apples, apricots, mandarins, lychees, avocadoes, tangelos, mulberries and olives on the 800 sq metre block as well as the occasional vegetables such as sweet corn, tomatoes, sweet potato, herbs etc.

The European allotments along railway lines and government owned land are eagerly sought by inner city dwellers. Here they spend the weekend growing vegetables and fruit and socialising with others. City farm examples in Perth include the one in East Perth and one in Fremantle.

So far I have focused on fresh vegetables and fruit. However similar opportunities apply to commodities such as cereals, milk, eggs. It is more difficult for meat where there are regulations in place but also not impossible on a group basis.

Bulk buying involves purchasing large amounts at a high up front cost but savings are made on each unit. This is not practical for the individual on a low income, it works best when they operate in groups.

Service providers are less likely to get directly involved in growing produce. They want access to cheap food. They also want access to food that is safe and nutritious with appropriate quality.

This is better done as a collective buying group making direct arrangements to buy low grade (size and appearance not nutrition) from large growers or grower groups. Some of this could be custom processed if the need arises.

By any international standard Australian food is safe, clean, green and nutritious. However buyers have specific requirements for verification of this. There is always the possibility that individuals, due to ignorance or neglect, cause contamination or in some other way reduce the safety status of the food.

The Department of Agriculture has invested heavily in developing a Quality Assurance scheme that has gained international recognition; SQF2000 – Safe Quality Food 2000. This uses a HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point – an internationally recognised system for helping manage food production systems) based system to ensure potential safety and food quality issues are anticipated and dealt with by the growers and processors. The system is third party audited. You will find examples of products on the supermarket shelves with this and similar Quality Assurance accreditation. The major supermarkets also have similar schemes in place. These schemes are about ensuring food does not have chemical residues, heavy metal contamination, not contaminated in production by bacteria and the like and that the product does what the buyer wants in appearance and function. It tends to assume that the nutrient content is suitable for the consumer.

We have recently started a new quality food program, which will target growers on a range of issues to reinforce the needs of consumers for safe food. Topics that will be dealt with are those of chemical usage, market needs, food contamination and the like.

Food quality means different things to different people.

A growing trend in the world is the demand for organically produced food. The consumer in this case is looking for food which is free of chemical in its production, has had no artificial fertiliser applied and is free of ‘Mad cow disease and the like’. They also expect a good tasting product. More often than not they expect the same quality – appearance - as the conventional product. Unfortunately it tends to cost more than the conventional product. It is unlikely to be affordable to people on low incomes unless they grow it themselves or link directly to the growers.

However there are many reports of demand for organic product by consumers with disease problems, illness, allergies and other disorders. These people are generally looking for a source of food that they eat which is not going to aggravate their condition. Others are specifically looking for biodynamic products that they consider have special qualities.

There are limited supplies of organic and biodynamic products in Western Australia. The Department of Agriculture has a project developing this industry.