Fruit and vegetable growers on Queensland's Granite Belt have been left without an income for a year after a devastating hail event, prompting calls for changes to disaster arrangements.
The powerful hailstorm wiped out strawberries, apples, capsicums, tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans with 100 per cent losses for some growers, while their neighbours were left unscathed.
Granite Belt Growers Association president Nathan Baronio said anyone who was under the storm had their crop destroyed.
But the affected area was not large enough for it to be deemed a disaster.
"We've got about 20 acres [8 hectares] of strawberry plants which are outdoors [and] they literally look like someone had walked over them with a hedge trimmer," Mr Baronio said.
"On the night of the storm, there was so much hail that it stood six inches [15cm] high in some places."
Climate change considerations
Mr Baronio said, with climate change, growers were expecting more severe hail events and wanted assistance updated to reflect the challenging conditions they faced.
"There are going to be more of these hailstorms," he said.
"We need to have a look at how the government's assistance for natural disasters is being coordinated to change with the changing weather.
"I don't know of any other industry in Australia where someone can be expected to lose their income for an entire year."
State Member for Southern Downs James Lister said he had written to Queensland's Agriculture Minister, Mark Furner, about the damage and asked for disaster recovery grants for the many small family producers affected.
"Such a hailstorm event is … more in the character of a flood event that wipes out small businesses," Mr Lister said.
"In my opinion, it therefore is reasonable that disaster recovery grants be made available for those impacted."
The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) held a meeting last week with affected producers.
Disaster response and recovery director Lisa Beach said, while the region had not been declared a disaster zone, other forms of assistance were available.
"At the moment, we have individual disaster-stricken property declarations available to producers — essentially that's the same as the Category B assistance [which is available for disaster recovery in specific regions]," she said.
"What that helps producers with is up to $5,000 worth of freight assistance for goods that they need to recover.
"There are also two other components, one is up to $100,000 for an essential working capital loan, and up to $250,000 in concessional loans."
Mr Baronio said it was expensive to bring strawberry plants to production, with the plants alone costing $0.80 to $1 each.
"So, if you've got 500,000 plants and you take them to production, you're looking at an investment of $750,000 that has just been wiped out overnight, a week before picking," he said.
It comes as fertiliser, fuel, electricity, and labour costs have all increased, compounding the effects of drought and COVID-19.
Agricultural netting a possible solution
Nationals Leader and federal Member for Maranoa David Littleproud said he would like to see an extension to the Australia-wide horticulture netting grants program, which will expire next year.
Under the program, Queensland growers can apply for 50 per cent of the cost of purchasing and installing horticulture netting, up to $300,000.
Mr Littleproud said, while netting did not protect crops at all times, it did provide some protection.
He called on the state government to contribute dollar for dollar.
"I think we should probably start to think seriously about how we can extend some of this netting with state, federal, and farmer support," he said.
Last month, the federal government announced it would conduct an independent review into the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements system across the country, which Mr Littleproud said was timely.
"So, what happens is it has to hit a certain financial threshold and damage before the federal government gets in," he said.
"If it doesn't hit that threshold, then the state government owns all responsibility."
The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries encouraged producers affected by the hailstorm to fill out its Agricultural Disaster Impact Survey.
"DAF has worked really closely with producers and industry representative groups to develop a survey that will channel evidence of these sorts of impacts and other disaster events into the one place," Ms Beach said.
