The Economic News Thread

[Maximus]

Did anyone know that SA produces 80% of Australia's potatoes?!

Booming potato crop ready for harvest and farmers eye season's first chats
Rural Editor Nigel Austin
adelaidenow
October 18, 201210:30PM

THE humble spud, the state's largest horticultural industry, gets into full swing next week, as farmers pick the first of the season's baby potatoes.

The start of the annual harvest highlights the success of the potato industry which is providing an economic bonanza in South Australia, becoming the success story of the state's $2.5 billion horticulture sector in the past decade.

It provides close to 80 per cent of Australia's fresh potatoes, with gross revenue of more than $432 million.

To highlight the start of the season, Potatoes SA is holding an inaugural baby potato auction at the Adelaide Produce Markets, Pooraka, at 8am on Wednesday, October 31, with funds going to the Little Heroes Foundation.

"We hope it will bring out the best among South Australia's philanthropic vegetable merchants, growers and other stakeholders who are keen to secure the best potatoes of the season and make a positive contribution to charity," Potatoes SA chief executive Robbie Davis said.

Baby potatoes are becoming increasingly popular at home and in export markets, particularly in Asia and the Middle East.

Potatoes SA chairman Nick Psevdos said baby potatoes signalled the start of the picking season.

The first were usually picked in the Virginia region in the third week of October each year before picking progressed to the Mallee and the Riverland.

SA is the nation's largest producer of baby potatoes, which represent about 10 per cent of the total crop.

"Baby potatoes used to sell cheaply as a by-product of normal potatoes but, with changing consumer trends, they have become increasingly popular with their gourmet connotations and appeal on the table," Mr Psevdos said.

Also known as cocktail potatoes or chats, baby potatoes were selling for between $2kg and $2.99kg at the Adelaide Central Market yesterday.

Mr Psevdos said the potato industry was a fantastic success story because much of the development had come from internally generated returns from the main companies.

"What we have seen in the past 10 years is a consolidation of growers with rapid growth by the main family owned companies," Mr Psevdos said.

"The SA potato industry has really expanded on the quiet due to the efforts of good family businesses, including the Mitolo Group, the South Australian Potato Company, Parilla Premium Potatoes and Mondello Farms."

[[Shuz]]

Did anyone know that SA produces 80% of Australia's potatoes?!

Booming potato crop ready for harvest and farmers eye season's first chats
Rural Editor Nigel Austin
adelaidenow
October 18, 201210:30PM

THE humble spud, the state's largest horticultural industry, gets into full swing next week, as farmers pick the first of the season's baby potatoes.

The start of the annual harvest highlights the success of the potato industry which is providing an economic bonanza in South Australia, becoming the success story of the state's $2.5 billion horticulture sector in the past decade.

It provides close to 80 per cent of Australia's fresh potatoes, with gross revenue of more than $432 million.

To highlight the start of the season, Potatoes SA is holding an inaugural baby potato auction at the Adelaide Produce Markets, Pooraka, at 8am on Wednesday, October 31, with funds going to the Little Heroes Foundation.

"We hope it will bring out the best among South Australia's philanthropic vegetable merchants, growers and other stakeholders who are keen to secure the best potatoes of the season and make a positive contribution to charity," Potatoes SA chief executive Robbie Davis said.

Baby potatoes are becoming increasingly popular at home and in export markets, particularly in Asia and the Middle East.

Potatoes SA chairman Nick Psevdos said baby potatoes signalled the start of the picking season.

The first were usually picked in the Virginia region in the third week of October each year before picking progressed to the Mallee and the Riverland.

SA is the nation's largest producer of baby potatoes, which represent about 10 per cent of the total crop.

"Baby potatoes used to sell cheaply as a by-product of normal potatoes but, with changing consumer trends, they have become increasingly popular with their gourmet connotations and appeal on the table," Mr Psevdos said.

Also known as cocktail potatoes or chats, baby potatoes were selling for between $2kg and $2.99kg at the Adelaide Central Market yesterday.

Mr Psevdos said the potato industry was a fantastic success story because much of the development had come from internally generated returns from the main companies.

"What we have seen in the past 10 years is a consolidation of growers with rapid growth by the main family owned companies," Mr Psevdos said.

"The SA potato industry has really expanded on the quiet due to the efforts of good family businesses, including the Mitolo Group, the South Australian Potato Company, Parilla Premium Potatoes and Mondello Farms."

I hope we don't have South Australian potato famine, then.

[rhino]

here we are hoping for a 40 storey building to be approved,and i see melbourne a getting a new tallest building 108 storeys.

Well Melbourne's population is 3 times ours, so they should be looking at 120 stories .....

[Reb-L]

here we are hoping for a 40 storey building to be approved,and i see melbourne a getting a new tallest building 108 storeys.

Well Melbourne's population is 3 times ours, so they should be looking at 120 stories .....

The difference is; Melbourne is getting new hi-rises every year. I don't think we have had anything above 25 stories or so for the last 30 years. We're not even getting our 1/3. So there's something else than just population at play here (if that was the case Darwin should not even have a 5 story building). Can I suggest conservatism, red tape, green tape or just comfortable inertia has something to do with it?

[claybro]

The difference is; Melbourne is getting new hi-rises every year. I don't think we have had anything above 25 stories or so for the last 30 years. We're not even getting our 1/3. So there's something else than just population at play here (if that was the case Darwin should not even have a 5 story building). Can I suggest conservatism, red tape, green tape or just comfortable inertia has something to do with it?

Or a woeful economy. We are the Greece of the AU. (Austrailian Union), the only difference is that the other member states of the AU, are not pumping billions into our economy to assist,in fact they are actively competing with us for available business activity. Would be akin to Germany setting up a competative tax system to lure business away from Greece with the approval of the EU. All this, with our own SA girl made good Julia as our prime minister....makes me wonder really.

[Wayno]

We also get a cool billion dollars in GST gifted to us each year, compliments of the bigger states, which makes for a reasonably comfortable existence without having to try too hard or put up with that nasty thing called 'change'. I'd hazard a guess the majority of local folk opposed to progress and development don't realise they are actively contributing to SAs mendicant state of affairs, which in turn gives us a bad reputation and compounds the problem. Reb-L's term 'comfortable inertia' is a good summary. Anyone here work with someone who does not pull their weight? Annoying isn't it.

Now if each Australian state was a separate country our currency would be valued less compared to others and we'd therefore naturally attract more investment (e.g 1 NSW dollar would buy, say, 1.4 SA dollars making it worth doing additional business here).

Point being we're not really like Greece as our currency is pegged 1:1 with all other australian states, which makes life tougher for us in many respects. So we just need to be smarter.

[Waewick]

Great example wayno, which is also why WA should be thankful that they are part of the country, but for the opposite reason of SA.

Small States like South Australia can't be Conservative and need to be dynamic on everything we do.

The GST free ride will come to an end sooner or later

[claybro]

Point being we're not really like Greece as our currency is pegged 1:1 with all other australian states, which makes life tougher for us in many respects. So we just need to be smarter.

We are very much like Greece. The Greek currency is the Euro, 1:1 with all other European States, as our currency is pegged 1:1 with the other states. Greece also attracts Billons in Euro from the central bank, as we do in GST from the Federal Government. We resist change and preferr to slumber along in the Reb-L's "comfortable inertia" just like Greece, who cant seem to escape it's large goverment ,high cost socialist system. We have the highest rate of residents on social security as do they.Residents of the other states of Australia resent giving us money/water/infastructure, as do residents of other Euro countries do with Greece. Every suggestion of change is met with fierce resistance from a vocal minoriy who seem to run the state. It all seems to have remarkable similarities to me. Even the climate is similar.

[Wayno]

yep Claybro, you are correct. Dunno what i was thinking - Greece is pegged to the EUR just as we are pegged to the AUD.

A big difference is SA is making a concerted effort to invigorate our economy - with momentum heading towards success, while Greece appears to have no hope (obviously a complicated comparison - just paraphrasing here).

We actually came within a smidge of re-invigoration last year with ODX. Also while many lament the debt we now have due to AO, The new RAH, and other infrastructure, we are luckily in a country with overall trivial amounts of debt. We may also get mobbed by Liberal governments over the GST, but doubt we'd be left in a financially worse off situation as the Feds would be compelled to 'help us out' via some other mechanism.

In fact i'd like to think Australia considers itself, including all states, from a long term perspective. It's not just about balancing the next quarters budget. Imagine if the Feds had bailed out SA soon after the State Bank collapse - the entire country would have been better for it. By way of comparison we (via the Feds) managed to find $5b to help out QLD due to flooding a few years back (not mentioning the fact most flooded homes exist on a flood plain - sigh). Just imagine if SA was 'gifted' $5b today - it would certainly make a difference towards lifting our economic performance over the long term.

[rhino]

here we are hoping for a 40 storey building to be approved,and i see melbourne a getting a new tallest building 108 storeys.

Well Melbourne's population is 3 times ours, so they should be looking at 120 stories .....

The difference is; Melbourne is getting new hi-rises every year. I don't think we have had anything above 25 stories or so for the last 30 years. We're not even getting our 1/3. So there's something else than just population at play here (if that was the case Darwin should not even have a 5 story building). Can I suggest conservatism, red tape, green tape or just comfortable inertia has something to do with it?

I don't know who took my comment out of another thread and pasted it here, completely out of context! It was said tongue-in-cheek, in answer to a whinge about Melbourne's new 108-storey tower. I was surprised someone had taken it seriously until I realised it had been hijacked. Who thinks it is their business to do that?

[Wayno]

sorry Rhino, tried to find a suitable place to split the discussion about SAs economy from 301 KWS into this thread. You got caught in the crossfire. i owe you a beer.

[rhino]

's ok Wayno, apology accepted, I'm over it now

[Waewick]

yep Claybro, you are correct. Dunno what i was thinking - Greece is pegged to the EUR just as we are pegged to the AUD.

A big difference is SA is making a concerted effort to invigorate our economy - with momentum heading towards success, while Greece appears to have no hope (obviously a complicated comparison - just paraphrasing here).

We actually came within a smidge of re-invigoration last year with ODX. Also while many lament the debt we now have due to AO, The new RAH, and other infrastructure, we are luckily in a country with overall trivial amounts of debt. We may also get mobbed by Liberal governments over the GST, but doubt we'd be left in a financially worse off situation as the Feds would be compelled to 'help us out' via some other mechanism.

In fact i'd like to think Australia considers itself, including all states, from a long term perspective. It's not just about balancing the next quarters budget. Imagine if the Feds had bailed out SA soon after the State Bank collapse - the entire country would have been better for it. By way of comparison we (via the Feds) managed to find $5b to help out QLD due to flooding a few years back (not mentioning the fact most flooded homes exist on a flood plain - sigh). Just imagine if SA was 'gifted' $5b today - it would certainly make a difference towards lifting our economic performance over the long term.

Well there is actually a vast difference between Greece and South Australia

firstly, we pay our taxes, secondly we haven't been able to splurge to the level Greece did on cheap debt as a result of being part of the Euro - our debt levels have always been constrained by being part of Australia. In addition Unlike Greece we beenfit from both monetary and fiscal policies from our federal government - were as Greece only received monetary policy (up until the crash of course)

and lastly, we have a Westminster system....

There are similarities between Greece and South Australian, however SA has always had a strong industrial and agrcultural base. - Greece relied on tourism and restricted trade in "greek" products - basically european protectionism.

Greece complaining about being part of the Euro is similar to Port Power fans complaining about the SANFL, they ignore everything they were given and focus on the bad aspects, despite them all being self inflicted.

[Maximus]

Greece complaining about being part of the Euro is similar to Port Power fans complaining about the SANFL, they ignore everything they were given and focus on the bad aspects, despite them all being self inflicted.

Oh no... why did you have to go and do that? It's only a matter of time now until Rev wakes up and gives us one of his Port Power lectures!

[Waewick]

Greece complaining about being part of the Euro is similar to Port Power fans complaining about the SANFL, they ignore everything they were given and focus on the bad aspects, despite them all being self inflicted.

Oh no... why did you have to go and do that? It's only a matter of time now until Rev wakes up and gives us one of his Port Power lectures!

nothing like stirring up the poor Power fans.