WA farmers resort to crashing press conference to air fuel supply concerns as Middle East conflict ramps up

WA fuel and fertiliser supplies continue to be interrupted by conflict in the Middle East, with farmers resorting to crashing a press conference to confront the Premier with their concerns. Fuel and fertiliser prices have skyrocketed in the nearly three weeks since war broke out, with tensions leaving the key transit route through the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, and farmers facing increasing costs on almost every front. Granular urea prices along the east coast were this week assessed at $880 to $1000/t per free carrier, with diesel prices ranging from 199.0¢ per litre in Gracetown to 311.9¢ per litre in Kununurra on Wednesday. About 229,000 tonnes of urea and 408,000 tonnes of monoammonium and diammonium phosphate is in transit to Australia. A report from Grain Growers said Australian farmers were facing the risk of a short supply of urea and price rises of urea ahead of “peak seasonal demand”, with fertiliser suppliers receiving increased inquiries from buyers. The State and Federal governments spent the week reassuring the public there was no real shortage of fuel, instead pointing at panic buying for any local disruptions. But opposition politicians were quick to say that whatever the root cause of shortages, they were already causing problems that could lead to issues with food availability and, ultimately, price rises at the supermarket as well as the bowser. Heaping further pain on to the public, the RBA also raised rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Tuesday. Newdegate growers Davina and Michael Hams are rapidly approaching their seeding season. The couple, who run a 10,000ha farm, confronted Premier Roger Cook in Albany on Friday, telling him farmers across the Wheatbelt and Great Southern were struggling to access critical diesel supplies. Ms Hams said the pair had put in their annual diesel order, only to be told there wasn’t enough to fulfil the demand. She said the shortage could have serious consequences for cropping programs, with farmers now relying on whatever diesel is stored on property. “If we don’t get our crops in on time, the yield potential drops significantly and quickly and then there’s a point where they become completely unviable,” Ms Hams said. “So if the delay turns into weeks and weeks, then it will get to the point where there will be too much money outlaid by funds to make that money back, so it won’t be worth putting a crop in at all.” Meanwhile, one service station in Kojonup had reportedly been “cleaned out” of its fuel supplies, while another placed customers on 100-litre fuel restrictions. Even Perth’s northern metropolitan suburbs were also reportedly affected, with one Quinns Rocks servo forced to turn customers away on Monday after a customer filled jerry cans with hundreds of dollars worth of petrol. According to shop attendant Aslam Tamin, the service station had sold more than $200,000 worth of petrol in the past week, four times the average, after a sudden rush of panic buyers. A State Government roundtable was convened on March 11 to discuss panic around the surging fuel stockpiling and prices. WAFarmers chief executive Trevor Whittington said he had emerged from the talks positive WA’s agriculture sector was at the forefront of the State Government’s concerns. But he was concerned the State was leaning on organisations such as WAFarmers, Grower Group Alliance and Pastoralists and Graziers Association to ring around country towns to find servos that were about to “run dry”. “The task of working out which Wheatbelt towns are short of diesel has effectively been outsourced to farmer organisations with neither the staff nor the legal authority to obtain accurate information,” Mr Whittington said. After the 90-minute meeting with agricultural industry leaders, fuel suppliers, airlines and other stakeholders, the Government announced a seven-point plan to address stockpiling and price concerns. Fuel and fertiliser shipments have been given priority berthing at ports to ensure farmers and primary industry will have the oil supply they need to continue operating. WA’s regional areas will also be prioritised to receive their fair share of fuel, and extreme stockpiling of fuel will be addressed with fuel retailers, in particular to ensure regional residents have access to petrol and diesel. At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Mr Cook said he shared the public’s anxiety over the fuel price rises. He said the closure of the Kwinana oil refinery in 2021 was felt “right across the country”. “As companies move away from refinery and become import facilities, we can’t predict, or we can’t control, some of those big decisions by oil companies, but we can make sure that our supply chains work as best as they can,” Mr Cook said. Durack MP Melissa Price said she had been assured in a meeting with Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen that the Minimum Stockholding Obligation had been lowered on the basis the regions receive petrol and diesel to keep machinery going ahead of seeding. The minimum for diesel has been reduced from 2.7 billion litres to 2.2 billion litres, and petrol lowered from one billion litres to 700 million litres. WA Nationals leader Shane Love said the handling of the fuel crisis and denials of a supply issue by the Cook Government was “utter bullshit” at a Tuesday press conference on the steps of Parliament. “We have a situation where there is very little visibility for all sectors as to their fuel supplies going forward,” he said. Nationals WA MLC Julie Freeman choked back tears as she told media at the press conference her own Mullewa farm did not have nearly enough diesel for their upcoming seeding operations. National Farmers’ Federation president Hamish McIntyre supported the release of fuel and diesel supplies and said it was an important step for the regions as independent fuel retailers struggled to top up their bowsers through the spot market. “Trucks, tractors and fishing boats all run on diesel. It’s essential for harvesting crops, transporting livestock and fodder, and getting food and fibre to market,” he said. Shadow State agricultural minister Lachlan Hunter said his team was increasingly concerned over future food cost imposts amid the shortages. “We’re hearing from our farmers in the South West who are picking the likes of avocados, cucumbers and carrots, they can’t even put on their irrigation pumps to pump out water to supply fresh produce in the state of Western Australia,” he said. “This is going to become a food affordability and a food supply issue.”