ACCC probes McCain’s spud grower contracts

AUSTRALIA’S competition watchdog is looking into contract negotiations between vegetable processor McCain Foods and growers in Victoria and Tasmania.

As part of the investigation, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sent out letters to potato suppliers for the company’s Victorian and Tasmanian plants.

The letter asked suppliers to provide information on their experiences during contract negotiations with the company as far back as 2010. The ACCC stated in the letter that it was concerned McCain might have engaged in “unconscionable conduct” during contract negotiations with growers.

Concerns about the company’s treatment of growers were first raised back in 2012, when McCain abandoned the industry’s collective bargaining agreement and moved to start negotiations with individual growers.

At the time, Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association vegetable council chairman Andrew Craigie was highly critical of the decision.

“The collective bargaining process has been in place for 30 years, so this is unprecedented,” he said. “The pro- cess they’re using now is certainly not open and transparent.”

Some Tasmanian potato producers left the industry after the decision.

McCain processes Tasmanian-grown potatoes at its factory in Smithton. In 2015 it invested $10 million in upgrading its storage facilities and packing lines at the factory.

It has about 70 growers in the state and negotiates on an individual basis with them.

A TFGA vegetable council member, who did not want to be identified, welcomed the ACCC inquiry, saying that although the TFGA no longer had a collective bargaining agreement with McCain, it had maintained open lines of with the company’s management.

McCain Foods was contacted for comment.