Somerville Egg Farm suffers under Melbourne’s 5km radius rule
A Moorooduc egg producer is feeling the effects of Melbourne’s 5km radius, forced to reduce his flock by 30,000 birds as their eggs go to waste.
AN EGG producer has been forced to cull 30,000 birds as a result of Melbourne’s strict coronavirus-imposed five-kilometre travel radius.
Lou Napolitano, who runs Somerville Egg Farm on the Mornington Peninsula, said the distance parameters had resulted in a big drop in his on-farm sales.
“It has hurt quite a bit,” he said.
“You have to go a long, long way to get to suburbia. The nearest houses are about 4km away and all around is farmland.”
Mr Napolitano made the decision to cull 30,000 of his chickens almost two months ago “because they were producing eggs for a big loss”.
“I had to get rid of them a lot lot earlier than I would have. I was getting no profit from 30,000 birds,” he said.
The farm was already reeling from coronavirus restrictions introduced months ago, with business from local cafes and restaurants significantly down.
“The last three months I’ve hardly made a profit.”
“Our retail in our farm shop is down to half and our sales to all the restaurants and takeaways have stopped,” Mr Napolitano said.
He said the big supermarkets were the winners in his area, while smaller producers suffered.
“All the people that could have bought my stuff went to supermarkets.”
“Coles, Aldi Woolworths are doing all the business. They’re raking it in and none of them sell local produce,” he said.
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