EGGS —
IMPORTATION
1136. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to the Minister for Agriculture and
Food:
I refer to the WA Country Hour
article dated 7 November 2018, titled ''Supermarket egg imports will
force WA farms already struggling with feed prices to close, industry body
warns''.
(1) When did the minister last meet
with representatives of the egg industry in Western Australia?
(2) Has the minister discussed this
issue with members of the WA egg industry?
(3) Given the
drought in eastern Australia has resulted in high grain prices and this has had
an effect on costs for WA's egg producers, will the minister offer a state-based
assistance package to ensure the WA industry remains viable?
(4) Has the minister sought federal
government assistance?
(5) Does the
minister support supermarkets importing eggs from other states and territories
when demand could be met by local producers?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
(1)–(5) I
last met with egg producers on 17 July 2018, but since that time my staff have
been in frequent contact with key members of the industry. Certainly, there
have been discussions about issues in the egg industry. As the member will
totally appreciate, high grain prices are affecting all egg producers across
Australia. That is not something that is special to Western Australia; indeed,
from the articles that I have been reading, price increases for eastern states
operators are some 30 per cent.
I
think, on that basis, there is no credible base argument here that somehow or
other the Western Australian producers are being more adversely affected
by these grain prices than are their eastern states counterparts. Certainly, we
always encourage the supermarkets operating in Western Australia to be fair to
our producers and to ensure that our Western Australian producers are given
full access to their supermarket shelves. As the member knows, we have a Buy
West Eat Best program and, indeed, some of the largest egg producers are part
of that. We are concerned about the claims, backed by some evidence, that
eastern states and some local barn-laid eggs are being sold as free-range and
are driving down the prices. We are working with Minister Johnston's
office on how we can properly investigate these claims through both the state
and federal consumer protection laws.