On The Land
20 September, 2025
Food security strategy welcomed
AUSVEG has welcomed the release of the National Food Security Strategy Discussion Paper and commencement of a process to establish a National Food Council as steps towards a more food-secure Australia.
The peak industry body for the vegetable, potato and onion industry has long called for a National Food Security Strategy and will continue engaging with the government to ensure the views, needs and key issues of vegetable growers are considered, reflected and addressed.
The launch of the process for development of the National Food Security Strategy also follows the 2023 release of the Australian Food Story: Feeding the Nation and Beyond report, following a House of Representatives Standing Committee on Agriculture inquiry into food security.
With Australian vegetable growers continuing to face a range of severe economic, operating and productivity-inhibiting challenges that are threatening their viability, AUSVEG chief executive officer Michael Coote said it was crucial to ensure tangible measures that secured the industry’s future were included in the strategy, and also adopted in the immediate term.
“Australian families depend on Australian growers for 98% of the fresh vegetables consumed in this country so without a viable vegetable industry, Australia has no food security,” he said.
“Since 2023, surges in the cost of production, poor pricing, lack of profit to reinvest in productivity-enhancements, workforce shortages, and overwhelming compliance burden have contributed to upward of one in three growers consistently considering walking away from the sector.
“To achieve the intent of a National Food Security Strategy, it is critical that these issues are addressed, and that Australian vegetable growers have a seat at the table as this strategy is developed and implemented.”
