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NSW Farmers President James Jackson told 9news.com.au farmers in the flood-stricken area produce around $1 billion of food annually, “so the impact is quite significant”.
(Getty / Jenny Evans)
“When supplies reduce, prices go up,” Jackson said, predicting metropolitan Sydney residents would be the people mainly affected.
“It’s hard to tell how long the impact from this flooding will last but certainly it will be significant for consumers.
“For farmers, it will take even longer to clean up, rebuild and recover.”
Growers in Richmond have copped the worst of July’s flooding, but farms and orchards in the state’s central west have also been hammered by torrential rain.
Jackson said some farmers in the Hunter Valley have had their paddocks drowned for a third time this year.
Matt Dalgleish, an analyst with Thomas Elder Markets, agreed that looming supply line problems would likely be localised to Sydney.
“This kind of flooding is not usually something that causes widespread implications,” he said.
“Some of these horticultural regions gravitate towards high rainfall areas and highest fertility soil, and so they are often in lowland areas that do get flooded.”
Poor weather earlier this year in parts of northern New South Wales and Queensland triggered lettuce shortages in supermarkets throughout May and June.
