Warning as staggering extent of food supply worker shortage revealed

Australians can expect more product shortages and price hikes if urgent steps aren’t taken to fill a staggering number of job vacancies in the food supply chain, industry peak bodies warn.

The food supply chain is short by a staggering 172,000 workers and Australia has no national food supply chain strategy.

Spokesperson for the Food Industry Alliance — a new industry body for food manufacturers — Richard Forbes, says that’s “extraordinary”.

The CEOs of eight national peak food industries have estimated Australia needs an additional 100,000 hospitality workers, 20,000 supermarket workers, 15,000 convenience store workers, 12,000 meat processing workers, 10,000 workers in the seafood industry, 10,000 horticulture workers and 5000 warehousing and truck driving workers.

Mr Forbes says there will be shortages and price rises if something isn’t done urgently to help fill gaps in the food supply chain.

“We need 10,000 pickers to pick vegetable crops,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“If you can’t find pickers in the vegetable industry then farmers will consider whether they plant a product, and if they don’t plant a product you end up with a shortage.”

The Food Industry Alliance says a “suite of tools” are needed to fill worker gaps, including visas for foreign workers and incentives for domestic workers.

“I can’t see immediate solutions to the problems we have in the food supply chain,” Mr Forbes said.

Press PLAY below to hear what the industry says is needed urgently