North west community urged to rally behind Tasmania’s potato industry

Members of the north west community are expected to turn out in support of Tasmania’s potato industry at a public rally tomorrow, as the threat of potential mass imports remains.

A rally is planned to support Tasmania’s potato industry.

A rally in support of Tasmania’s potato industry is planned tomorrow as uncertainly over potentially devastating product dumping continues.

About 100 people are expected to turn out for the rally, which will be held at the McCain potato processing factory at Smithton at 11am.

The rally is in response to the threat of mass imports, which could see of millions of tonnes of frozen potato products from Europe flood on to the Australian market.

Tasmania is the country’s largest producer of potato products, which are processed at the McCains Smithton factory and the Simplot facility at Ulverstone.

Organised by the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the rally is expected to be attended by a mixture of concerned community members, farmers and factory workers.

AMWU state organiser Mike Wickham said in the worst case scenario, a flood of imported products could see both factories close and more than 600 jobs lost.

“We’ve chosen to have the rally at Smithton because it’s a small community and the factory is a major employer down here,” he said.

A McCain spokesman said the potential arrival of this product from the Northern Hemisphere would be catastrophic for potato growers, it poses a risk to their business as a processor and the thousands of regional jobs they support.

“If hundreds of thousands of tonnes of frozen fries are allowed to be dumped on our market, growers may need to seek alternative crops,” the spokesman said.

“This means Australia’s fresh potato supply is under threat. As an industry we fully support our growers’ campaign in the face of this unprecedented threat.”

McCain Processing Potato Growers committee chairman Beau Gooch said the group would support any efforts to try and raise awareness about the issue.

Mr Wickham said if the imports are allowed in, the flood of cheap products could potentially destroy 50 per cent of the market for the local processors, which would have a huge impact on the industry as a whole.

While the issue has received support the Tasmanian Government, Mr Wickham said it is unclear what action the Federal Government is taking to make sure the imports are not allowed into the country.

“Federally I seriously doubt they are doing much at all,” he said.

“The anti dumping laws are not much use at all because it can take five years to get anything done so we need the Federal Government to stand up now and say they’re not coming in.”

Mr Wickham said the COVID-19 crisis had highlighted the importance of maintaining local food production and manufacturing.

He said it is also time for Australian industries to expand their export markets and reduce their reliance on China.