Drakes Supermarket director John-Paul Drake warns of food price hikes over farmers’ carbon reporting burden

John-Paul Drake is condemning the “beyond unconscionable” carbon reporting burden on farmers, warning this will trigger supermarket price rises.

Prominent supermarket chief John-Paul Drake says food prices inevitably will rise if farmers are forced to shoulder the “beyond unconscionable” burden of carbon reporting.

Declaring farmers “the absolute backbone of our great country”, Mr Drake said they should not be saddled with more red tape and bureaucracy when Australia’s carbon footprint was small on a global scale.

Instead of the government interfering with business by imposing mandatory carbon reporting, Mr Drake said public servants should help by devising ways to cut electricity and water costs.

John-Paul Drake, director, Drakes Supermarkets at the firm’s Wayville store. Picture Dean Martin

The Advertiser on Monday revealed warnings of a hit to supermarket prices and banking costs because of a $2.3bn mandatory carbon emissions reporting burden being passed on to farmers.

Nationals federal leader David Littleproud and the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) are alarmed about a climate-related financial disclosure scheme for at least 1800 firms starting from next year, with estimated compliance costs of $2.3bn in the first year alone across the economy.

Mr Drake, Drakes Supermarkets director, said his firm bought from farmers at market prices, meaning these fluctuated with the market.

“If our farmers are forced to shoulder the burden of additional mandatory reporting, it’s inevitable that it will result in higher prices in-store. We can’t expect our primary producers to simply absorb this cost when we know that our farmers are already working on tight margins and in tough conditions,” he told The Advertiser.

“ … It’s a massive problem when you’ve got a segment of government telling farmers how to run their business – maybe our public servants should be out there trying to find ways to reduce the cost of water and electricity, rather than reporting on carbon emissions.

“Australia’s global carbon footprint is so small compared to the rest of the world – putting this responsibility on our farmers is beyond unconscionable.”

Livestock SA president Joe Keynes on his Keyneton property in 2021. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Woolworths and Aldi declined to comment, while Coles did not respond.

Livestock SA president Joe Keynes, whose family farming business east of the Barossa Valley grazes merino sheep and Angus cattle, urged the federal government to give more clarity on the carbon emissions reporting regime.

“We need to see that clarity. We need to have government, industry and our whole supply chain work together to map out the whole situation,” he said.

“You can’t just go to one point of the supply chain and say: ‘They’ll fix it all’, because it’s going to be all of us.

“Consumers, will they have to pay a bit more? I don’t know what the implications of that are. If we get an effective system that allows us to do it, maybe the implications to the cost of living will not be huge, but let’s see what happens.”

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Originally published as Drakes Supermarket director John-Paul Drake warns of food price hikes over farmers’ carbon reporting burden