SA farmers demand next government lifts genetically modified crop moratorium

GRAIN producers already have called on all parties to reopen the GM-free debate within 12 months after the election, saying SA was disadvantaged being the only state alongside Tasmania with the rule.

Wade Dabinett in a wheat field at the family farm in Parilla. Picture Simon Cross

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SA FARMERS want the state’s next government to give them the right to grow genetically modified crops.

Growers say a new, independent report shows a moratorium on GM crops until 2025 ruling is knocking up to 30 per cent of income from local coffers. They say last year’s State Government ruling was “based on anecdotal evidence of a premium and an inaccurate method of comparison of prices between states”.

“This independent and rigorous analysis across six to 20 years of prices shows there are no premiums for the majority in being GM-free,” Grain Producers SA chair Wade Dabinett said of the report by market analysts Mercardo.

Grain producers already have called on all parties to reopen the GM-free debate within 12 months after the election, saying SA was disadvantaged being the only state alongside Tasmania with the rule.

The report – Analysis of the price premiums under the South Australian GM moratorium – compared SA’s wheat, barley, canola, wine grapes, wool, cattle and sheep and lamb and pork sectors, that jointly contribute about 63 per cent to the state’s agricultural economy, with other states.

It found SA producers were trading at a two to 30 per cent discount to WA and Victoria in all but the pork category. Since 2012, non-GM canola at SA export ports has consistently traded between two per cent and three per cent below Geelong, Vic, and Kwinana, WA, ports.

And one startling observation showed that despite France and Germany prohibiting commercial GM cultivation, SA hadn’t supplied any canola to those countries for the past three years.

In stark contrast, WA, the state where the most genetically modified canola is grown, exports 1.16 million tonnes to those countries.

“This report is the most exhaustive analysis produced to date for the premiums and discounts achieved by farmers in SA,” the report summary said.

“The results demonstrate overwhelmingly that the majority of farmers in SA do not receive a premium as a result of the moratorium.”

Mecardo’s analysis also showed while the ban failed to give SA farmers price premiums.

It also meant they couldn’t gain economic and environmental benefits of using innovative agronomic tools licenced by the Gene Technology Regulator.

Mr Dabinett said analysis of price premiums under the moratorium showed the reason behind a GM freeze were blurred.