It’s no secret that 2022 has been one of the most challenging years for many vegetable and potato growers around Australia, who have dealt with significant floods, increases to costs of production, the ongoing labour shortage issues and rising costs of living and inflation.

To support growers through such a challenging and turbulent time, AUSVEG has been working hard behind the scenes to highlight the concerns of growers to political and government stakeholders and the broader supply chain, and deliver projects and services that directly help growers to produce healthy, high-quality fresh vegetables.

Media wrap-up last 12 months

Media figures

Total media hits: 3.4k

Total potential audience: 5.56 billion – this figure needs to be taken with a grain of salt, as a lot of online stories claim to have a massive global reach. While the actual audience figure is much less than this, it still represents a large potential audience for AUSVEG.

Examples of media coverage:

#knowyourAUSVEG campaign to increase awareness of vegetable sector

• Aussie vegie production going gangbusters

Floods, supply and prices of vegetables

• The government says fruit and vegetable prices will rise again. Here’s how much more you could be paying
• Floods expected to cause widespread damage to winter crops in ‘another blow’ to Australian farmers
• Why does this iceberg lettuce cost $11.99 and how long will Australia’s high vegetable prices last?

Labour

• Farm labour shortage continues despite surge of working holiday visa applications

Jobs and Skills Summit

• Floundering food industry needs more hands on deck to ensure supply chain

Publications AUSVEG has featured in last 12 months:

TV

• ABC News
• Sky News
• Sunrise
• Today Show
• Channel Seven News
• Channel Nine News
• Channel Ten News
• SBS News

Radio

• ABC Country Hour and rural broadcasts
• ABC PM, News Today and other national news programs
• 3AW, 2GB and Nine radio talkback programs
• Regional and Rural radio in most states and territories

Print

• The Australian
• The Australian Financial Review
• The Weekly Times
• News Corp Papers, incl Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, Courier Mail, The Advertiser
• Nine Papers, incl The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times
• Most regional and rural papers, including Good Fruit and Vegetables, The Land, Stock and Land
• Syndicated through the Australian Associated Press

Online

• Online sites for all news organisations listed above
• Global Fresh Produce websites, including Fresh Plaza, HortiDaily
• com.au
• The Guardian
• Daily Mail
• Multiple international News sites
• Mamma Mia podcast

Media trends over last 12-months

Source: Meltwater

Significant peaks around:

• November – lining up with #knowyourAUSVEG.
• January – lining up with our initial federal election priority list.
• February – lining up with some of our labour public affairs and media activity.
• March – Morrison Government’s announcement of the establishment of the Ag Visa.
• June – Hort Connections, which was also when a lot of the media was focusing on the floods in southern Queensland.
• August – lining up with media activity around the Jobs and Skills Summit.
• October – lining up with our media activity on the floods and wet weather in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.

Share of Voice

Key words

Case study #1: #knowyourAUSVEG

• Media and social media campaign to educate the public on the Australian vegetable and potato industries
• Aim to raise awareness of the vegetable and potato sector’s hard-working growers and the substantial contribution that the industry makes for the national economy
• Really strong engagement across LinkedIn, but lower engagement than expected on Instagram
• High media coverage mainly driven by the story being picked up by AAP and The Australian
• Engagement rate of posts higher than AUSVEG’s average social media posts

Media performance

• Total Mentions: > 200
• Total Potential Reach: 93 million
• Example news story: Aussie vegie production going gangbusters

Case study #2: Food Supply Chain Alliance advocacy pre- and post-Jobs Summit (from 21 August to 13 September 2022)

The group’s first major activity was to lobby for action around of the Jobs and Skills Summit in September; this included a news story that appeared on pages 1 and 6 of the 22 August edition of The Australian, as well as a press release that has been widely picked up.

This story, press release and the 172k worker shortage figure have also gained the attention of politicians, with Nationals Leader David Littleproud issuing his own press release following the story’s publication.

The two press releases that the Alliance has produced are:

• 22 August 2022 – Unprecedented Labour Crisis across Australia’s food supply chain
• 2 September 2022 – Urgency for Labour across Australia’s food supply chain has not been recognised at Jobs Summit putting food security at risk

An overview of the coverage from the time period is below.

• Total mentions: > 1,480 – sources include:
  • The Australian
  • The Land, Stock and Land, Farm Weekly, Stock Journal etc
  • ABC Online
  • The Weekly Times, news.com.au, The Daily Telegraph, The Advertiser, The Mercury etc
  • The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald etc
  • ABC Radio Metro, incl Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Hobart
  • ABC Radio Regional broadcasts
  • ABC News Breakfast, ABC 24, Landline
  • 2GB, 3AW
  • Triple M and other FM stations
  • Nine TV
• Total Print/Online: > 280
• Total Broadcast: 1,200
• Potential Reach: 274 million

If you would like to discuss these or any other issues, please do not hesitate to contact AUSVEG on 03 9882 0277.