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Growers walk as vegetable industry compliance costs top $200m

By Sophie Baldwin

Jan 26, 2026

AUSVEG chief executive Michael Coote says sentiment in the vegetable industry has plummeted and remains at record lows.

New research by AUSVEG has for the first time quantified the massive cost and scope of the $213 million annual compliance, regulatory and red tape burden hampering the productivity and profitability of Australian vegetable growers and threating the long-term viability of Australia’s vegetable industry.

The launch of the Horticulture compliance and regulation: reducing the burden by 2030 report comes as the 2025 AUSVEG Industry Sentiment Report reveals an alarming and continuing decline in grower confidence which must be urgently addressed to keep farmers farming vegetables, and ensure Australia’s future food security.

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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 future.

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 about $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 about 50 separate areas of business operations;
almost nine in 10 growers reported negative impacts of compliance audits on stress levels and mental wellbeing; and
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.

“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,” AUSVEG chief executive Michael Coote said.

He said for the first time, we now had 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 said.

“These have continued expanding in scope, volume and complexity, leading to duplication and snowballing time and cost pressures.

“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.

“Lifting industry productivity has been a keen focus of the government since the federal election.

“Our latest sentiment report shows vegetable growers currently rate their productivity as ‘average’ at best and 72 per cent say reducing compliance burden would provide them with a key boost, so moving now to implement the report’s recommendations is just common sense.”

Michael said unless the industry saw smarter, not harder, compliance regimes in the vegetable industry, and the key issues facing growers were addressed, more and more would leave, supply would drop and vegies would cost more for consumers.