Australia Weather News

Months of consistent rain in Tasmania has delayed the vegetable harvest by weeks.

Jim Ertler from Premium Fresh says the lack of rain-free days in all growing regions across the state have reduced supply to local supermarkets and export markets.

"It's been pretty difficult over the last six to eight weeks," Mr Ertler said.

"We are still supplying some of our customers with product that we would have normally finished by the end of June or first week of July.

"It's stretched it on, but products kept pretty well in the ground actually."

Vegetable supply shortages

Premium Fresh is a Tasmanian vegetable export business supplying primarily carrots and onions, as well as a suit of other vegetables, to local supermarkets and export markets in the Middle East and Asia.

"We've been putting a lot of people and resources into getting the product out of the ground very quickly and then storing it so that's added extra cost. We've been harvesting a week's worth of product in just two or three days."

Mr Ertler said supermarkets were willing to accept the delayed produce because of vegetable shortages around Australia.

"We've been fortunate in that vegetables are quite short around the country," he said.

"They've allowed us to stretch ourselves out and been more than happy to take it whenever we've got it it."

Premium Fresh grow vegetables across all growing regions of Tasmania.

For other producers who grow in only one area, heavy and consist rainfall in their region is pushing their supply to the limit.

Crop losses from high rainfall

Darren Long from MG Produce, who grow potatoes in Sheffield, said they were losing produce due to harvesting delays caused by rain.

"It just won't stop raining," Mr Long said.

"We were irrigating right up to the first of May, then it started raining and now we are losing crop because there's just water sitting in rows."

Monthly rainfall totals for June were over three times higher than the monthly average.

"It's been pretty devastating."

Mr Long estimated MG Produce has lost 250 to 300 tonnes of product.

"We can't put a figure on the damage we are doing to our soil to get product out. We don't want to wreck soil," Mr Long said.

He said they had had to continue harvesting to ensure supply to local supermarkets.

"These supermarkets don't shut so we need to have product," Mr Long said.

"We are getting right to the limit where we can just supply the supermarkets and keep them going but we don't have surplus product, so if it doesn't stop raining it'll be the first time in 30 years that we've run out of product."