AUSVEG chief executive, Michael Coote said the results of the most recent AUSVEG sentiment survey from July reveal two in five vegetable growers are actively considering leaving the industry within the next year due to challenging business conditions, and that a further two in five would follow suit if they had a viable exit strategy.
The proportion of growers actively considering exiting has jumped from an average of one in three since January 2025.
“A lack of operating profit for capital improvement, expansion and innovation; compliance burden; input cost increases; poor retail pricing; and increased labour costs have again been identified as the key issues leading growers to contemplate their futurem” Mr Coote said.
“These challenges are contributing to declining profitability across the industry, with 62 per cent of surveyed growers in July indicating they were financially worse off compared to 12 months ago, and 53 per cent expecting to be worse off in a further year.”
With the growing burden and cost of compliance regularly identified among the top productivity and profitability drains for Australian vegetable growers, AUSVEG commissioned Corporate Value Associates (CVA) Australia to produce the ‘Horticulture compliance and regulation report’, including a thorough examination of the current compliance and regulatory landscape in the vegetable industry, the impact on Australian vegetable growers, and recommendations to address these increasingly urgent issues.
The report has identified the cost of compliance across the vegetable industry is estimated at $213 million, or 4 per cent of a vegetable growing businesses’ average operating costs.
This equates to 42 per cent of average vegetable industry earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of approximately 9 per cent, illustrating the significant burden of compliance on vegetable business productivity and profitability.
A summary of key findings includes:
- A 25 per cent reduction in compliance costs would equate to savings of approximately $53 million per annum across the industry, representing a meaningful opportunity to improve profitability and productivity for vegetable growers across the country.
- Compliance and certification requirements for Australian vegetable growing and on-farm packing have increased significantly in number, scope, and complexity in the past 30 years, with compliance now covering around 50 separate areas of business operations.
- Almost nine in 10 growers reported negative impacts of compliance audits on stress levels and mental wellbeing.
- More than 80 per cent of growers reported opportunities for improvement across key compliance areas.
The report has also identified 34 actionable recommendations aimed at reducing duplication, improving efficiency of certification and audit processes, moving towards more results-focussed compliance, and a streamlining of government processes and support services.
AUSVEG is now working to urgently establish an industry taskforce to implement these recommendations.
Mr Coote said as sentiment in the vegetable industry has plummeted and remained at record lows, Australian vegetable growers have increasingly called out overwhelming compliance burden is taking an unsustainable toll on their productivity, profitability and future viability, as well as their mental wellbeing”.
He says for the first time now, we have a true measure of those pressures.
“Compliance isn’t just about government requirements, but also the raft of audit, certification and other obligations imposed by service providers, supply chain partners, retailers, regulatory bodies and industry codes of conduct,” Michael explains.
“These have continued expanding in scope, volume, and complexity, leading to duplication and snowballing time and cost pressures,” he says.
“Vegetable growers accept certain compliance is necessary, particularly around food safety and the wellbeing of consumers, employees and themselves, but with the burden of compliance now equating to an estimated 42 per cent of vegetable growers’ EBITDA, it is clear even moderate compliance efficiencies will have material productivity and profitability benefits for vegetable growers, who operate in a typically low margin, high volume industry.
