Werribee South farmer Marco Mason, who has been reaping the rewards of high lettuce prices, believes the boom is over but predicts higher prices for other vegetables.
Freight challenges cause problems for perishable goods, including lettuce.This time last year, Marco Mason had just finished ploughing 12 hectares of iceberg lettuce back into the ground after frost all but destroyed the crop.
Fast-food chains struggled to secure enough lettuce for their burgers, with KFC switching to a lettuce/cabbage blend. This week, Mason’s farm was harvesting the last of its iceberg lettuce crop, which was spread across about 162 hectares. He said the price peak had probably passed for iceberg and there would be a market correction within a fortnight.
A Coles spokeswoman said floods in northern NSW and Queensland earlier this year, in addition to recent cold weather, had impacted supply of lettuce, berries, beans, tomatoes, broccoli and herbs.National Farmers Federation acting chief executive Ash Salardini said the pandemic had also caused havoc for the freight industry, and that was particularly problematic for the highly perishable iceberg lettuce.“Iceberg lettuce does not last very long,” he said. “It has a very short shelf life.
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