Feeling the effects
LIKE MOST OF AUSTRALIA, AND ESPECIALLY THE REGIONS, WE WERE HIT HARD WITH THE SKILLS AND LABOUR SHORTAGE. WE, LIKE MANY FARMERS, USUALLY EMPLOYED FOREIGNERS TO PICK AND PACK OUR FRUIT.
A CHALLENGE, that would be a fair way to describe how most industries felt about operating businesses in 2021.
It was supposed to be the year we all came out of Covid, returned to a “normal” world and restrictions would be a distant memory.
But testing, and perhaps breaking the resilience of some, was variant after variant that was always “more infectious” than the last, more dangerous and our nation stopped again with hard interstate border closures.
But among the most resilient industries, is agriculture.
With about 60ha of bananas at our Woopen Creek farm, north of Innisfail, it took me and my family at least 10 to 12 years to turn this into a reasonable revenue-generating business.
We’ve been here 18 years. Farming is a long-term business, there’s a lot of unknowns. One day you’re making money, the next day you’re not.
With this global pandemic, on the face of the business – we’ve been OK.
Most of the restrictions, the masks, it hasn’t applied when you’re out in the paddock. For 10 hours a day, it’s almost a complete escape from the world’s most spoken about topic.
But the virus’ effects on the economy is something even farmers can’t hide from, and it’s been good and bad.
Like most of Australia, and especially the regions, we were hit hard with the skills and labour
shortage. We, like many farmers, usually employed foreigners to pick and pack our fruit.
Their absence created a stressful time at home and with the family and the workload had to be picked up by our remaining staff. In total, we employ around 10 people.
However, with many people moving around in their jobs, fortunately we’ve been able to find reliable local workers, who are chasing a full-time 38-hour working week. Something of a rarity in manual labour.
I do believe if someone has aspirations of a long-term career in agriculture, now is the time to get in. There’s a lot of
opportunities for work and also a lot of opportunities for senior positions like supervisors.
Also, like most of Australia, there’s been no holidays, no travel. It’s meant more time on the farm, and strangely, that’s a bad thing.
You need that break and time away. The closest we got to a holiday was a trip to South Australia to visit the fruit market. We spent about two days there and the rules around Covid changed.
A trip to the markets for a banana farmer helps us understand how our fruit presents to major supermarkets and what improvements should be
made. Sometimes packing only picture-perfect bananas will yield a return, this year however there was a higher demand.
With people spending more time at home, eating less takeaway and focusing on their health, bananas became hot property. Returns have been good.
The biggest challenge in farming is the weather, and Tropical Cyclone Niran made sure 2021 wasn’t easy.
But it’s North Queensland, and cyclones occur.
What we didn’t expect though was a longer wet during the winter months.
The extra cloud cover, the
damp soil, it means you get smaller bunches, and longer hang time – the last thing the industry needed after months of no produce following the cyclone. In the last month or so, the weather has been kinder to us.
Unlike industries vocal about government assistance, there isn’t much I’d ask of our government right now other than to make sure our supply services are looked after. Our transport networks could be in danger with the shortage of AdBlue for trucks.