Toolamba farmer Ross Marsolino has already begun selling off machinery, including half of his fleet of tractors, as part of his production downsizing.
A key voice that has called out the nation’s major supermarket chains on their pricing policies is maintaining his rage despite a review into the supermarkets recommending changes to protect farmers.
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Ross Marsolino has no caution left to throw to the wind in a war cry that he insists farmers everywhere need to join.
“Other growers need to speak up. They have to, of course!”
With that, Mr Marsolino shows me the expanse of fine red soil that will not have a crop sown this summer.
The $3 million tomato grader which requires 50 staff for its operation is being sold.
Mr Marsolino made headlines in November when he decided to plough his zucchini crop into the ground rather than accept the price of $1.60 per kilogram from the two major supermarkets.
This year he will not be growing tomatoes.
Craig Emerson’s report on the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, released on June 24, made 11 recommendations for the supermarket industry and, although the Federal Government has vowed to adopt them all, Mr Marsolino says that may not be the case.
“My biggest fear is that it would all go under the carpet and get left behind,” he said.
“But to make it happen, we need you guys in the media to keep that pressure on.”
The report recommended harsh financial penalties for any retribution committed by a supermarket if a farmer complains about prices.
The inquiry heard from farmers who were ‘blackballed’ by the larger chains if they asked for a higher price.
Mr Marsolino also said farmers needed to not rely on believing ‘it will get better’ during any season and should instead find safety in numbers to speak up.
“Hopefully a wife or husband might say at home ‘we’re hurting, you need to speak up’.
“We all need to cross over that threshold to make a difference to the community.
“It’s pointless talking about it behind closed doors; we have got to all speak out, because they can’t blackball all of us.”
Despite Mr Marsonlino not fearing retailer backlash due to his public profile, he has decided to cease all tomato production that covered 81 hectares and produced 600,000 cartons each season.
Ross Marsolino surveys a paddock where tomatoes once thrived. “The starting point of the product is here, so we should be at the starting point of the price."
The breakdown he gives of the economics on a storeroom tour of an eight-lane tomato grader and a wall of 2000 empty tomato boxes is just the beginning.
Mr Marsolino is selling the $3 million grader, along with more than half of his $600,000 fleet of tractors parked outside.
“The Kenilworth truck and trailer have already gone — we don’t need them any more.”
The economics of tomato production to supply supermarkets does not allow for scaling back: the tomato grader cannot be turned only ‘half on’.
“I need 50 employees to run this grader, at $30 per hour for a 10-hour shift; how much does that cost me?
“Plus, between 16 and 20 grand per month for power to run both it and the cool rooms.
“You need a big turnover to do that.
“I cannot afford it based on the way the supermarkets operate with us farmers. You just cannot afford it on $1.80 per kilogram.
“The starting point of the product is here, so we should be at the starting point of the price, because the prices are justified here.”
Mr Marsolino has been operating the farm since 2015 after a 15-year career as a wholesaler and having owned his own fruit and vegetable shop for 30 years.
“I have been here for 10 years now and have seen a different aspect of how the farms are run and something was needed to make a change.
“I have supported (the supermarkets) all my life but now I have gone against them.”
Mr Marsolino’s solution goes beyond the value of his crop.
“When they are paying us just $2 a kilo for something and selling it for $6.99, they actually do not sell enough product and so they want to lower the price more.
“It all comes back to this — if the supermarkets paid more for their product and sold it for less, you then have a supply and demand.
“And this is my argument, that your customer will go in there and buy four zucchinis and not just one, four red capsicum and not just one.
“This is where it is hurting the consumer also but (the supermarkets) don’t care because people have still got to eat, and they are still going to shop at the supermarket and that’s because they are convenient.”
The hardest part to Mr Marsolino’s decision to plough his crop last year was dealing with staff.
“When I mulched these in November, I had 80 people here and do you know how hard it was to tell those people I was mulching them all?
“We had started sowing the seed in September, harvesting started in mid-November, and then I told them what I was doing.
“And they just looked at me.
“It is one of the most difficult things, when they are working for you for so long and they are relying on you coming here; I try to find them work with other farmers but it’s more complicated than that.
“When you’ve got 100 people here you have to do everything properly, pay them the right amount of wages, we have to give them all the right breaks, run it properly, it’s a business but it’s still got to be able to make money.
“If you get to the end of the season and say ‘oh we lost a million dollars’, are the supermarkets then going to say ‘oh here’s a cheque for a million dollars’?
