Prices of fruit, vegetables and seafood will not increase dramatically as a result of the Queensland floods, industry experts say.
Fruit and vegetable retailer Harry Kapiris, from Kapiris brothers in Melbourne’s Oakleigh, said the consumer panic that has arisen in recent days is unnecessary.
“We do get vegetables from Queensland, but Queensland does not supply to Victoria at this time of year; their season is well and truly finished,” Mr Kapiris told Neos Kosmos.
Victoria will be mainly affected as a result of areas like Toowoomba, which have been hit by floods, not being able to supply to the Brisbane market.
“As a result of those areas being wiped out it will put pressure on local supply and will put upward pressure on the southern markets,” Mr Kapiris said, adding that a lot of Victorian grown vegetable products go to Queensland.
At this time of year most of the vegetable products; lettuce, tomato, capsicum, zucchini and cucumber are all coming out of Victoria and New South Wales, according to Dennis Raft, from fruit and vegetable wholesaler, Dennis Hangar in Victoria.
“We’ll have an abundance here, what will determine prices is how they will be sold up north. If local produce is dragged out of Victoria to compensate for what Queensland don’t have there’ll definitely be an increase,” Mr Raft said.
Previous fruit and vegetable prices of $3.50 a kilo could jump to $4.50 or $5 a kilo, he added.
“There will most likely be a general 30 to 40 percent increase on what vegetable and fruit prices have been for the last few years,” Mr Raft said, adding “bananas will slide, pineapples will be hit pretty hard since Rockhampton, Mackay and Bundaberg produce a lot of pineapples and sweet potatoes will go through the roof”.
In recent days lettuce prices went from between $14 and $16 to $28, Mr Raft said, while mangoes and watermelons have also suffered.
Leafy ground crops will be more affected than crops coming off trees, so tomatoes, lettuce, carrots and potatoes will be more expensive, Mr Raft said.
Even tomatoes from Goulburn Valley and Shepparton have been hit by rain.
“Crops have been hit; we’re pulling tomatoes from glasshouses in Western Australia and Adelaide, otherwise it’d be pretty devastating,” Mr Raft said.
Produce from Queensland is generally grown between May and December, as this time of year is tropical in Queensland and crops are affected by tropical rains.
“Queensland relies on the south this time of year. Peaches, nectarines all go north from Victoria. We’ll have a bit of hardship here, we’ve even had more rain in Victoria than usual, so it’s a lot dearer than last year,” Mr Raft said. “The price increases will probably last about a fortnight and then surface,” he added.
Northern New South Wales have also been hit by the floods, Mr Raft said, as the farm of one of his suppliers in Swan Hill is completely underwater.
Meanwhile Melbourne’s seafood prices will not be overly affected by the floods, an employee of Conways seafood in Footscray said. The employee, who wished to be named only as Terry, said Queensland will be affected to a degree as areas with farmed barramundi and farmed prawns will encounter problems.
“If floods have hit those spots it will be more to do with transport problems,” Terry said, adding “none of the ports have been hit badly so I can’t see it having a major affect”.
In Queensland barramundi is farmed further north from the flood areas, while prawns are farmed further south and further north of the affected areas, Terry said. “A lot comes down by road transport, and that’s cut off at the moment, but that’s only a short term problem”.