Sunshine Coast small farmers say they must boost prices to ‘stay in business’

While customers and restaurant owners feel the pain of steep food prices, small farmers say their hands are tied when it comes to supply costs. Read why here.

Farmer Nick Holliday on his farm. Picture: Corey Schweikert.

With fuel rising and rain pouring, some small farmers in the region say they must bump their prices to simply stay afloat, even if it means pain for customers.

“We’re balancing a decision to look after our customers … who we know are suffering financially, but also making sure we pay ourselves a living wage,” farmer Nick Holliday said.

Mr Holliday’s Belvedere Farm in Cedarton sells beef, pork and pastured eggs to some restaurants on the Sunshine Coast and in Brisbane.

Mr Holliday last bumped his prices in January and said he was “contemplating” raising his prices again from $10 to $11 a carton for his pastured, sustainable eggs after overheads “massively accelerated” this year.

Farmer Nick Holliday on his farm. Picture: Corey Schweikert.

He said the “steepest” increase was in fuel, saying his diesel bill “doubled” in the past year from $175 to $350 a week.

“Even over the course of a few weeks, the prices have gone up by five to eight cents a litre,” he said.

He said he sacrificed his wage to offset increases in fuel and cost of production, reducing it to “very little”.

Needing to bump prices is a sentiment also shared by Alexi Cox, a farmer at a small poultry farm called Dragan Farms, mostly selling pastured eggs.

Ms Cox, who estimated overheads had risen by up to 15 per cent this year, planned to increase her prices by a dollar this week because of rises in overhead costs and wet weather, in a bid to “make sure we’re not doing it for free”.

“We don’t want to put our prices up, but we have to stay in business,” Ms Cox said.

Because her team sold eggs from their farm’s gate, Ms Cox could “directly” explain to customers the reasoning behind price spikes.

“They tend to be more understanding when they’re speaking to the farmer,” she said.

In a solution to fix the crisis of rising costs from farmers, Mr Holliday said small farmers needed to share operation costs, like driving to customers.

“We can all share the benefit of that trip rather than five farmers trying to get to the same place,” he said.

“We can solve this problem.“