AUSVEG, the peak industry body representing the country's vegetable and potato growers, has slammed the federal government in the wake of last week's announcement that the Cowra, NSW, cannery of Windsor Farm Foods had been placed into voluntary administration, with more than 70 of its workers dismissed without pay.
AUSVEG chief executive, Richard Mulcahy, called on the government to do more to aid the Australian food manufacturing sector.
“The loss of Windsor Farm is another crushing blow to the already struggling food processing sector that is trying to stand up under the enormous pressure placed on it from imported foods and the retail sector,” he said.
“This is the second agribusiness to close in as many weeks, after the liquidation of Basacar produce in Bundaberg last week, and a string of others over the past 12 months.
"The Labor government needs to stop its rhetoric about Food Plans, Asian Centuries and voluntary retail codes and implement programs that ensure the continuity of Australian jobs and the food manufacturing sector.
“There is a litany of circumstances that prevent our food manufacturing sector from reaching its potential and keeping Australian jobs here and, unless government policies are able to address a lack of retail competition domestically, we will continue to see this scenario unfold in regional Australia,” Mulcahy said.
The NSW company was the last wholly owned Australian cannery and was once one of the largest canning lines in the southern hemisphere.
Windsor Farm has been a mainstay of the Cowra area since the Second World War. In 1943 the one millionth can rolled off the production line as it produced packaged food to nourish Australian and US soldiers in the Pacific theatre.
AUSVEG also pointed the finger at the the country's largest retailers in general, and the trend towards home brand products in particular.
“Unsupportive retail environments with no long term goals and short term contracts on generic home brand goods haven’t allowed the company to reinvest in itself and innovate. Windsor Farm has been unable to negotiate for better prices on canned goods but was constantly requested to lower prices when compared internationally to cheaper manufacturing countries,” AUSVEG said in a statement.
“An increasingly difficult export market with a high dollar and increases to the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service export licenses from $500 to $8,300 have added to the pain.”
The cannery's administrator, Trevor Pogroske of Grant Thornton Australia, will hold a meeting of creditors in Cowra on 22 March.
The administrators have said they are seeking an interested party to buy the Windsor Farm assets and, if possible, re-employ workers.
AUSVEG has criticised federal government support of the local food processing industry in the wake of the the liquidation of Cowra, NSW, cannery Windsor Farms.
