Goulburn Valley fruitgrowers have expressed anger and disappointment at the federal government’s decision to reject a request for $25 million of assistance, while Victorian farm leader Peter Tuohey said the government had ”ignored rural Australia”.
Gary Godwill, whose family has been growing fruit in the Goulburn Valley for 100 years and supplying SPC Ardmona for decades, said he was ”bitterly disappointed” by the announcement.
”It seems it was a decision that’s based on an ideology that is just not going to work. Sooner or later we’re going to have no industry left in Australia and that’s a very disappointing trend,” he said. If Shepparton’s huge SPC Ardmona cannery was forced to shut its doors in response to the decision it would cause ”total devastation” for the district, Mr Godwill said.
Last year, SPCA managing director Peter Kelly questioned how the company could be viable without major investment, and the company asked for $25 million from the federal government and $25 million from the state government. The company pledged to put in a further $90 million.
If the cannery does close, Mr Godwill, 59, said he would phase out his orchard and gradually bulldoze his trees. Then, he would use the land to grow feed for the beef cattle side of his farming operation. This season, his Kialla East orchard will supply peaches, pears and apples to the cannery.
Mr Tuohey said: ”We’re disappointed and we’re angry that the government has ignored rural Australia again by not investing in that SPCA factory.”
Given the huge amount of money governments had spent modernising irrigation infrastructure in northern Victoria in recent years, Mr Tuohey said ”it seems a bit silly” for the federal government to reject SPC Ardmona’s funding request. ”It’s like building a fence around a paddock and not putting a gate on,” he said.
SPCA employs about 800 permanent workers across its entire operations, the vast bulk of them in the Goulburn Valley.
It has three factories, in Shepparton, Ardmona and Kyabram. Its workforce swells to about 1200 people during the fruit processing season.
A Shepparton cannery worker told Fairfax Media the mood among workers was ”a bit forlorn. Which is understandable, a lot have been there for quite a few years.”
Another worker said he was not surprised that the federal government rejected the company’s call for financial assistance. ”I think most of us expected it,” the worker said.
”Coca-Cola Amatil are a pretty rich company, they make huge profits … so I can’t understand why the taxpayers should help a rich company out like that,” the worker said.
Asked how important the Shepparton cannery was to the town, the worker said: ”Very bloody important. A lot of people work here, peoples’ livelihoods depend on it. Some people have worked here all their working lives.”
Shepparton mayor Jenny Houlihan said SPCA was ”hugely important” to the Goulburn Valley, economically and socially. ”We believe that this government at the moment has a golden opportunity to be involved in a positive development of the fruit industry,” she said. ”This is not the same as a handout to the car industry to keep something afloat. This is about development, innovation, working in partnership with industry and governments,” she said.
Deputy Premier Peter Ryan said: ”The Commonwealth’s decision to reject a structural adjustment payment for SPC Ardmona is a significant setback for Goulburn Valley communities and Victoria.”
But Mr Ryan said the state government believed ”food production and food processing has a very strong future in the Goulburn Valley and that SPC Ardmona should be a part of this future”.
