Morale low as drought lingers

CONFIDENCE among Queensland primary producers has dropped to a five-year low with 46 per cent of producers holding a negative outlook on the year ahead, according to Rabobank’s latest quarterly Rural Confidence Survey.

It showed producers across the state had “the most negative sentiment in the country”, after much-needed follow-up rain failed to fall following widespread rain in early March.

Although producers’ outlook on the year ahead was up from 31 per cent in the previous survey, only 11 per cent of producers expected the agricultural economy to improve.

A total of 40 per cent also expected similar conditions to the last 12 months.

Rabobank regional manager for North Queensland and the Northern Territory Trent McIndoe said, while the past few months had provided some relief for parts of the northern cattle regions, drought was still the biggest factor in the downswing in Queensland farmer sentiment.

“Of the producers surveyed, almost half nominated drought as their cause of concern, despite some of the northern regions being now taken off the drought-declared list,” he said.

Tablelands Regional Council and the declared portion of the Mareeba Shire were among those to have their drought status revoked in May this year.

Mr McIndoe said confidence in the sugar industry had also taken a hit this year, due to the low world sugar price, with 75 per cent of the state’s sugar producers expecting conditions to deteriorate and 82 per cent expecting their income to fall in the next 12 months.

He said beef producers were concerned about how the tabled changes to the Vegetation Management Act were going to affect them.

FNQ Growers president Joe Moro said there were some underlying concerns facing the region’s producers, but he believed confidence in the Far North was slightly higher than the rest of the state.

“This area has gone through drought and no longer drought declared, so there probably is a bit more confidence because of that,” he said.

“But, at the same time, there is still a lot of concern about power prices, a lot of new regulations coming in across the board and also a bit of uncertainty in the horticulture industry in regards to what’s going to happen with penalty rates.

“This area is probably confident but not overly confident, there’s still a fair bit of concern.”

OF THE PRODUCERS SURVEYED, ALMOST HALF NOMINATED DROUGHT AS THEIR CAUSE OF CONCERN