Fruit and veg growers and suppliers smashed by floods

Diners can expect to pay more for fruit and vegetables at eateries as floods destroy Rocklea markets and local farms.

South East Queensland’s farming community and fruit and vegetable suppliers have been hit hard by the horrific weather conditions, with properties washed away and factories flooded.

The damage and time to recover is set to send fruit and vegetable prices skywards, as demand outstrips supply.

Water levels at Rocklea’s Brisbane Produce Market reportedly hit 8m over the weekend, with the area cut off by road, and wholesalers unable to enter the market to inspect the damage.

Fruit and veg wholesaler Suncoast Fresh, which operates out of the Rocklea distribution centre and supplies some of South East Queensland’s biggest and best restaurants and cafes, watched almost their entire business go under, losing everything from stock to fridges, and even a truck.

The Brisbane Produce Markets in Rocklea have been completely flooded. Picture: Liam Kidston

“It’s gone really high. It’s smashed us,” Suncoast Fresh owner Graeme Twine said, with the business uninsured because of its flood-prone location.

While he was working quickly to rebuild his business and ­already had sites planned for relocation, he said the devastating weather event would cause the quality of fruit and veg to dip, with farmers losing entire crops.

“All the farmers have lost a lot of stuff,” he said. “The quality is probably going to be an issue with local produce being absolutely hammered. There will be a turnaround time for the growers of six to eight weeks to get things back to where they were.” He also predicted supply and demand issues would result in ­prices shooting skyward.

“There’s basically less product because a lot of farmers are going to be under pressure,” he said.

“And it doesn’t just affect us here in Brisbane, it gets spread across the country because it means we have to get this from there and then it puts it up $1/kg or $2/kg. These things affect the whole country because we do get stuff from everywhere.”

Meanwhile, small Brisbane suburban farms, Loop Growers and Neighbourhood Farms, which supply the city’s top eateries with top-notch, sustainably grown, hyper-local produce have also been completely wiped out by the weather event.

Loop Growers’ Alice Star said her and partnerPhil Garozzo’s two acre plot in Draper had been completely destroyed, with 4m waters pulling down their five structures used for everything from sowing seeds to vegetable processing. They had also lost their small farming tools, seedling trays, crates, compost bins and everything they needed to operate in their usual capacity.

“With all the buildings lost that’s a huge blow because that’s a lot of money to spend to get them rebuilt,” Ms Star said.

She was unable to put a figure on the total damage caused. After building the farm up over the past six years entirely from scratch, Ms Star said it was devastating to lose it all in one weekend.

“Yesterday we all broke. We weren’t in a good way yesterday,” she said, unsure what their insurance would cover.

She revealed that the farm would probably be out of action for the next six months as they tried to move their operations to higher ground and start again.

“I haven’t quantified how much that will be, but definitely tens of thousands of dollars to get it up and running, so I might have to find a new job to support it for a little while,” she said.

There is currently a GoFundMe campaign running to help the couple recover, which currently sits at $26,000, however, much more financial support is needed.