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MEDIA RELEASE NICK XENOPHON M.L.C. INDEPENDENT
NO POKIES MEMBER
OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
IS
STATE GOVERNMENT BEHAVING LIKE HUMPTY DUMPTY OVER LOCAL EGG PRODUCERS?
· Desperate egg producers are
destroying tens of thousands of hens because they can’t afford feed. · SA’s egg industry will be wiped out within months - and with it over a thousand jobs - unless the Government acts now.
South Australia’s
multi-million dollar a year egg industry faces extinction within months - and
with it the loss of over 1,000 jobs - unless the State Government urgently
intervenes and provides the same sort of assistance other governments have
provided to their egg producers. Local egg producers never
received the assistance other producers interstate did following deregulation of
their industry in 1992. Nor have they obtained a share in the estimated $300
million in competition payments successive SA governments have received since
the 1990s. The crisis has been brought to
a head because of interstate eggs flooding the SA market in the last 3 months,
for as low as 40 cents per dozen - well below the cost of production for the
most efficient local producers. A lack of action by the ACCC over claims of
‘dumping’ has left local producers despondent. There are currently over 300
South Australians directly employed in egg production, with and estimated 900
others working in industries dependent on the viability of the producers –
including feed companies, hatcheries and transport operators. No Pokies MLC Nick Xenophon,
who was approached just days ago by a group of desperate egg producers, says it “beggars
belief that the State Government is sitting back and doing nothing effective to
save the industry.” “The
local egg industry is at a crisis point. All local producers want is a level
playing field. To compete with interstate eggs flooding the market they need the
same sort of assistance other State Governments have provided. That way they can
restructure and rebuild to make the local industry viable in the long term.” (For instance the NSW
Government provided a $61 million assistance package post-deregulation for egg
producers back in 1989.) “The
consequences of the Government not acting now is to see the terminal
decline of an industry that produces a basic and important staple of life. And
once the industry breaks apart the Government won’t be able to put it back
together again. SA consumers will then be at the mercy of big interstate
operators, with all that could mean for freshness, quality and price.” The State’s largest egg
producer - Golden Eggs –
established in 1960, has since the flooding of interstate eggs destroyed 70,000
hens. Managing Director Mark Bressington is considering destroying another
30,000 birds in the coming week.
Written and authorised by Nick Xenophon, 653 Lower North East Road, Paradise, SA 5075
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