Consumer standards high
Perfect produce comes at high cost to farmers
“Nutritionally there’s no difference, it’s all fine to eat.”
Mr Turrisi said lack of public education about how produce is grown was to blame.
“Like where the crops come from and what season it is. People think things come all year round.
“Chain stores are manipulating, in a roundabout way,” he said.
Mr Turrisi said farmers’ markets held about 20% of the market share in Australia, with the remaining 80% in the hands of large supermarket chains.
Such a high saturation of supermarket-standard produce not only warped perceptions but also price.
Mr Turrisi said the cost of tomatoes sky-rocketed recently, but given his market wasn’t bound by strict specifications, he was able to keep prices consistently low.
Where supermarkets have been offering the popular salad staple for between $7 and $9 a kilo, his prices hadn’t pushed past $4 for the past 14 months.
“We can take produce that has a blemish on it,” he said.
“It has no bearing on
nutrition or taste, it just didn’t make grade.
“It’s just going to be dumped or put through a processor. But we take on that cost saving and pass that on to the people.”
The fate of rejected stock varied, with some unsellable produce being used as fertiliser or to feed livestock.
“In my past of growing cauliflower, it gets turned into
mulch, turned back into the ground,” he said.
In some cases, farmers were able to sell produce that didn’t make the grade through other channels.
Simon McCarthy, co-owner of Gracekate Farms and Lochinbar Limousins cattle stud, said most of their silverbeet and kale produce could be sold.
“We do the chain stores
first and anything that doesn’t meet the specs go to the markets,” he said.
“They get sold at a reduced price but it’s still worth it because the seconds are still good.”
Living in a country where food is readily available has turned out to be both a blessing and a curse, according to Mr Turrisi.
As many of us have never had to worry about strawberries turning up on supermarket shelves, we developed high expectations of what Mother Earth was able to provide.
“We’re very fortunate in Australia that we have an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables,” Mr Turrisi said.
“We’ve never gone through a depression or anything like that, thankfully.”