'Over-flooded' market and low demand impact north Queensland capsicum growers

Mr Walker runs a 40 hectare operation called Phantom Produce in Bowen, growing capsicums, tomatoes, and cucumbers. He also sits as president of the Bowen Gumlu Growers Association.

Although rain could affect Bowen's winter season, the area usually had favourable growing conditions throughout winter, and supplied Australia with around 50pc of their winter tomatoes.

Mr Walker said while cherry tomatoes were "breaking even", he described the capsicum market as "flooded with too much product" due to good weather around the country causing increased production and lack of demand.

"In a normal season you allow for cold nights and a bit of poor flowering so production is down, but this year the weather has been perfect so it's producing what it's meant to, plus about 30pc extra," he said.

Mr Walker said he was selling capsicums for less than cost; spending $3/kg to produce the vegetables that were making $2-$2.50/kg.

"I'm getting my picking costs, packing costs, freight and commissions, but I'm not getting my growing costs back," he said.

Queensland Fruit and Vegetable Growers CEO Rachel Chambers said profitability in Australian horticulture was often reliant on whether or not there were unfavourable weather conditions in competing growing regions.

"Unfortunately profitability in our industry is based on supply and demand," she said.

"Horticulture is this ludicrous world where profit isn't built into sale price or costs so growers are at risk of market levers they can't control, dictating whether they make a profit or not.

"Some growers end up having to sell below cost rather than just have all this produce go to waste," she said.

Mr Walker thought the other culprit behind lack of demand was cost-of-living pressures that saw household budgets tighten up. In his experience fresh produce was the first to go.

"People don't want to go without their $5 coffee or latte, but they'll go without their capsicum," he said.

Bowen Gumlu Growers Association CEO Ry Collins agreed with this observation and said fresh produce was generally "the first thing getting thrown out the trolley" when you looked at consumer spending and agreed capsicum growers in particular were experiencing a "tough market" at the moment.

Jon Brewer from Ausmarket Consultants, a fruit and vegetable market price reporting service, confirmed wholesalers had echoed that demand had been quiet for some commodities, like capsicums.

"There seems to be really good supplies and slow to steady demand which means there is that oversupply and prices have come right back," he said.

"I don't doubt that growers are feeling the pinch."

Mr Walker said while larger growers might be able to front the costs and sell their product for less than cost, it was the entire industry that suffered the consequences of a flooded market.

He said growers were also prioritising fulfilling export orders to ensure a continued buyers market, but that resulted in growers sending the rest into markets where it would sell for much less, to the point where everyone lost money.

He wanted to see Australian growers expanding into overseas markets, rather than expanding their operations in Australian markets he described as "already full".

Mr Walker said this year's market looked very different to last year where production was down and prices were up.

He said "most growers" were making money last year even though total volume was down 30pc because demand was up and therefore prices were higher.

Mr Walker thought the most important thing for growers was to keep an eye on their fixed costs and an ear to the ground to evaluate markets in real time.

He said the best way was to get on the phone most mornings around 5am to evaluate trends and prices to see if it was worthwhile packaging product or not.

He said he would do this by talking to freight and transport companies to see what their schedule looked like over the next few days.

He would also find out what was happening in the markets across the major cities, and would evaluate the impacts of oncoming weather forecasts or public holidays.

"If you know what other people are doing you can make a decision on whether or not to send to that market, and because I'm only small I've got to make every box count. That's how you make money," he said.

Mr Walker was hoping to see a bounce back by September or October, but he did not know whether it would be enough to pick up the season's losses.