Updated ,first published
West Australian farmers face a wait of up to three weeks to receive fuel supplies as a result of panic-buying across the metropolitan region, with the state government putting forward a seven-point plan to tackle the crisis after a roundtable meeting on Wednesday.
From potato farmers in Manjimup, to grain farmers near York, the fuel shortage in the regions could have a flow-on effect to the seeding and harvesting of various crops.
Potato farmer Dom Dellavedova has about 10 days of fuel left before he has to halt his harvesting production.
“The [fuel] tank is 10,000 litres, I have about 3000 litres left. A lot of the irrigation’s done with diesel motors. We chew through that quite easily in 10 days,” Dellavedova told this masthead.
“Down [south] here is probably the biggest horticultural region in Western Australia. You’ve got avocados, you’ve got potatoes, you’ve got apples, you’ve got just about everything. It all requires irrigation.
“Now, the worrying thing about all of this is that if fuel gets held up or delayed, it’s going to have a big impact on us, it’s going to have an impact on the grain growers.”
Dellavedova said the lack of fuel also impacted the delivery of goods to supermarket shelves.
“While everything seems to be sort of OK at the moment, it just worries me looking down the road when you have this gap of nothing coming in,” he said.
Similarly, grain farmer Nick Emin faces big impacts to his crop yields if the flow of fuel to his family farm in the Wheatbelt doesn’t improve.
“We’re farming west of York, which is about an hour east of Midland. It’s a 900-hectare pure cropping farm and we’re growing canola and barley. So, this time of year we are in full swing of paddock preparation and getting our machinery ready for seeding which starts in about four to five weeks,” he said.
Emin was told he too would face a three-week wait time to get access to his regular fuel supplies.
“We’ve had really good communication from our wholesaler, and they’ve said that the big refineries are limiting sales to wholesalers to try and hold the diesel metro,” he said.
“Earlier in the week [we were told] ‘no fuel is available and you can’t order any’. Now a limited amount has been released to our wholesaler, but he’s had to cap it at 4000 litres per farm until he gets around to everyone to try and make it go a bit further.
“But once his levels reach a certain target he then has to stop delivering again to allow it to stay for emergency services.”
How far does 4000 litres go on a 900-hectare farm? Emin said it would last only four to five days.
“Our diesel consumption is increasing naturally at this time of year, but not being able to get it means that a lot of the preparation activities we’re doing either have to slow right down or we can’t do them at all,” he said.
Both men wanted to put to bed the misconception that farmers were panic-buying fuel.
“Farmers can only store so much on their bowsers. So, a lot of the panic-buying seems to be coming from the metro area, and it seems that agriculture as an industry has been put on the backburner to try and preserve stock levels for metro,” Emin said.
“There’s a lot of misinformation around growers stockpiling fuel causing these issues.
“But it just happens to have fallen at the time of year when growers are stocking up anyway for their seeding preparations.”
WA Premier Roger Cook met with industry figures on Wednesday for a fuel security roundtable to tackle the rapidly escalating issue.
Following the meeting, Cook said a seven-point plan had been agreed to, which would prioritise fuel and fertiliser imports; ensure fuel providers respond to the needs of regional West Australians; explore the use of higher-efficiency vehicles; and take action to address stockpiling.
The government will also convene an Industry Operational Group to meet weekly to tackle “specific domestic supply chain issues”.
“I understand there is a lot of anxiety right now across the community about fuel security, and I want to assure Western Australians that my government is doing everything it can to address these concerns,” Cook said.
“Western Australia has stared down global challenges before, and we will do what we need to
do to keep WA strong.”
Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief economist Dr Daniel Kelly said the government’s consultation with industry was valuable.
“We are particularly concerned about the impact on our members in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, as well as those operating in regional WA,” Kiely said.
“This conflict has not only driven up the cost of the fuel they need to run equipment. It’s also driving up the costs of other inputs like fertiliser and petrochemicals due to shipping constraints through the Strait of Hormuz.
“Businesses and households need governments to provide certainty and clarity around fuel and supply chain security during this time.”
During federal parliament question time on Wednesday, Nationals O’Connor MP Rick Wilson said that farmers weren’t “panicking” and were instead being “prudent.”
Wilson said farmers who produced 27.2 million tonnes of grain in the last harvest were also at risk of catastrophic consequences due to the lack of fuel available.
“There is a lot going on in the broad acre wheat-belt farms that require a lot of diesel. They’re spreading lime, they’re doing summer spraying, there is stubble rolling going on and by the end of the month they will start dry sewing,” he said.
“If they’re not able to start sewing at the correct time, then that will have a catastrophic impact on the yield come the end of the year.”
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