Another pressure on Australian primary producers is the huge power of Coles and Woolies to force down the price they pay in order to maximise profits and shareholder returns. Rember milk before the dairy industry was deregulated? Price at the farmgate was controlled, cost to consumer kept on an even keel. Now dairy farmers get a pittance (if they are still in business),and we pay more.

A carbon tax could work to our advantage, if the cost of shipping goods to Australia was part of the equation. It really is ridiculous that it is 'cheaper' to bring processed fruit across the world when we can grow everything we need right here.

Cheryl,

I would think your remarks are extremely flippant.

"domestic demand"

I would think that it is at the stage, where there is less and less demand within Australia for Australian made products. The continuous statements that tarrifs make products more expensive has lead to the belief that anything made in Australia is expensive or of worse quality.

So now people tend to buy imported only.

I know of people who wouldn't even look at something if it has been made in Australia. But in other coutries the ethos is the opposite, and the average person is extremly interested in what is being produced inside the country.

An example also would be the education system that buys mainly imported products, because it believes that Australian made products are inferior, and this would jeopardise the education of the children. The end result is generations of children being lead to believe that anything made in this country is inferior.

Hi Vanna,

No slight intended about Oz products and I wasn't really talking about tariffs although they can be a factor in bilateral trade agreements. Low tariffs make goods cheaper - well, they're supposed to. Someone was very clever to bring up the Coles - Woolies duoploy. I hadn't though of that. Oz produce is world class, no doubt.

I think the argument here is about supply or lack of it due to external market competition (trade), a growing population (demand) and the fear that internal demand for food will out strip supply. That's it isn't it?

Some careful use of statistics, I notice.

"While Australia’s agriculture exports increased ($US16.4 billion to $US26.1 billion) between 2000 and 2008, agricultural imports increased at a much faster rate ($US4.2 to $US10.4 billion). In other words, the agriculture export-import ratio in Australia’s favour declined from 390 to 250 per cent."

Or, put another way, our trade surplus of agriculture exports over imports widened (if I was reporting this, I'd say "surged") from $12.2 billion to $15.7 billion.

Yay.

Most of those other figures simply reflect market size. We are simply not geared to lift production by the tens of billions, as they can in Europe, the US, Brazil, China etc. - the "markers" that Mr Lewis chose to use.

"...global agricultural export... Between 2000 and 2008... the EU ($230 billion to $566 billion), the US ($US71.4 billion to $US140 billion), Brazil ($US15.4 to $US61.4 billion), and China ($US16.4 billion to $US42.3 billion)...China’s manufacturing exports exploded [surged?] from 2000 to 2008 ($US220 billion to $US1330 billion), along with Brazil ($US32 billion to $US86 billion), and India ($US33 billion to $US112 billion"

Big numbers. We're a comparatively small market, economically speaking.

But I agree with Cheryl - our food imports are skewed towards the "non-staple", which given our general level of prosperity, is hardly surprising.

It's what we choose to buy.

>>The problem isn't food or even demand, it's why were swimming in bloody sauvignon blancs and fine cheeses<<

And as they say, you always have a friend in cheeses.

Cheryl,
I would say the issue is developing an ethos of producing, value adding, and extracting as much as possible from what is available.

As an example: - Australia is only skimming the top of what it could be gaining from the mining industry or mining boom, as most of the equipment being used in mining (billions of dollars of equipment) is being imported. There is even shipload after shipload of low tech welded framework going to the mines in central QLD that is being produced in Viet Nam, and then being shipped into the country.

While academics (or ex academics such as Malcom King) may condemn tariffs, few talk of the necessity of producing something in Australia. It’s easier for them to import with taxpayer funding (or “government spending”).

A good suggestion from another forum is to tie money going to systems such as the education system into GDP or a national productivity figure. If the national productivity figure goes up, systems such as the education system get more. That concept could also be extended to a range of government departments, and it could even be used to determine the pay rates of our illustrious politicians.

It would certainly help stimulate innovation and create improvements in productivity, and becomes self-sustainable.

Next time government employees or public servants want to buy imported cheese, TV set, car, textbook, computer game etc, they would also realise its was going to affect their paypacket.

Pericles,

not sure what you are on about.

Here are some smaller nations whose agricultural exports are increasing at a faster rate (from 2000 to 2008) than Australia so you don't think i am being too selective in my use of data.

Norway agricultural exports 4.24b to 8.78b;
Switz 2.52b to 7.63b,
Paraguay 699m to 4b.

also, article not just about agriculture. I was asking where Aust's future wealth was going to come from given ongoing decline of manufacturing, and smaller opportunities coming from services.

Perhaps you have some answers to enlighten me, or is everything just dandy with the stuff in the ground.