Third-generation farmer Tim Carnell has pulled the plug on his Kirra Pines Farming group

A family-owned farm on the Granite Belt, operating since the end of World War II and which supplied the likes of leading supermarkets and pizza giant Domino’s, has gone belly up owing creditors $5m.

Farmer Tim Carnell, managing director of Kirra Pines Farming, on the dry banks of the Severn River in 2019. Picture: Natalie Grono

It’s a sad ending for one of South East Queensland’s larger produce suppliers.

A family-operated farming group that’s been growing veggies in the Granite Belt since just after World War II has gone belly up.

Third-generation operator Tim Carnell just pulled the plug on two entities in the Kirra Pines Farming group after appointing administrators in early July with the vain hope that the business could somehow get resuscitated.

The farm, based just south of Stanthorpe at Glen Aplin, operated across about 260ha on nine sites, growing mainly tomatoes and capsicum, but also zucchini and leeks.

A supplier to leading supermarkets and pizza giant Domino’s, the business employed more than 130 workers during peak season and had about 25 full-time staff.

Tim Carnell

But Kirra Pines started to unspool about three years ago, eventually falling victim to a fatal mix of declining revenue and a lack of adequate finance.

Costs associated with the drought and Covid only intensified the pressures and finally proved too much.

In a report to creditors, liquidator Kelly Trenfield from FTI Consulting said Carnell Family Farming Pty Ltd and related entity KPF Machinery Pty Ltd went down owing as much as $3.8m to unsecured parties.

They are not expected to recover a penny from the collapse. Add in those with a secured stake and the losses exceed $5m.

Trenfield said the companies got hammered by various natural disasters, including a series of devastating hail storms between 2018 and 2020.

In addition, average returns for tomatoes and capsicum fell over the past two years and “contributed to an increase in the number of crops being graded as rubbish, due to an inability to sell,’’ she found.

Both companies, which “were likely insolvent from March 1’’, had piled up annual net losses over the past three years, reaching $2.17m of red ink in the year to June.

The negative net asset position over that time more than doubled to $6.7m in the business, which Trenfield found “operated with minimal working capital and relied heavily on access to finance’’.

With lending facilities nearly exhausted, the business ended up dependent on trade creditors, grower advances and related party loans, which reached nearly $750,000 last year.

At one point in early 2019, Carnell revealed that he was trucking in water around the clock to keep 650,000 tomato plants alive. He feared even that would not be enough to save 1.2 million capsicum vines.

Carnell did not return a call seeking comment Monday about the business, which was originally launched by his grandparents in 1946.

But back in July, Carnell stressed that he and his team were “extremely disappointed’’ to have to appoint administrators.

“Severe drought across eastern Australia and Covid impacts to supply chain mechanics have heavily impacted the business, and a higher cost of production combined with low prices for horticultural produce have proven the catalyst for the decision,” his company statement said.

“We remain very proud of what Kirra Pines has achieved in terms of the contribution it has made to the Granite Belt community.’’