Pineapple shortage warning for next year, senate committee hears

Due to unseasonal winter rains in one Australian state, a staple of the Australian summer could be hard to come by next year.

A beloved summer fruit could be largely unavailable next year as a result of heavy unseasonal rains in Queensland.

Addressing a senate committee into the cost of living on Friday, chief executive of the Queensland Farmers’ Federation, Jo Sheppard, said extreme recent weather had lead to strongly disrupted production cycles in fruits and sugarcane in the Sunshine State.

A consequence of this had been the early flowering of pineapples, Ms Sheppard said, which had created a temporary glut in production but could result in a chronic shortage in a year’s time due to the longer planning time frames used by pineapple growers.

Pineapples could be hard to come by next year due to unseasonal winter rains, the head of the Queensland Farmers’ Federation told a senate committee on Friday. Picture: Supplied

“Pineapples take two years to grow,” she told the committee when asked about the impact extreme weather events had wrought on Queensland farmers.

On Monday, the ABC reported Queensland farmers would be left with tonnes of ripened pineapples rotting in their fields due to the unseasonal winter rain.

In her address to the senate committee, Ms Sheppard also said the “number one” concern for farmers across the board continued to be labour shortages.

She said farmers were “literally struggling to get their crop off” as a result of the shortages, and called on the federal government to implement a short term immigration policy to help farmers get over what she referred to as the current “hump”.

Such is the dire labour shortage in Queensland, farmers are struggling to get their crops off, a senate committee on cost of living has heard. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Ms Sheppard said the labour crisis was compounded by housing shortages in rural and regional Queensland.

On Friday, the senate committee heard from a range of stakeholders concerned with cost of living pressures in Australia.

Earlier in the day Samantha McCulloch, chief executive at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, offered a withering criticism of the Albanese government’s gas price intervention.

Ms McCulloch said the government’s decision in December to place a price cap on new contracts for wholesale gas was “exacerbating, not easing” the issue of rising energy prices in Australia.

Representatives from the Australia Institute, Climate Energy Finance, Better Renting and Q Shelter also addressed the committee, as well as treasury and officials from other government departments.

Liberal Senator Jane Hume chairs the committee, with Senators Penny Allman-Payne, Matt Canavan, Karen Grogan, Tony Sheldon and Dean Smith comprising the rest of the membership.

Originally published as Pineapple shortage warning for next year, senate committee hears