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1 week ago | 
abc.net.au | Emma Field |Annie Brown
Traders at Melbourne's fresh fruit and vegetable market say a revised rent proposal by a Victorian government body is an insult to them and a threat to food prices. On Tuesday, the government-run Melbourne Market Authority (MMA) offered vendors at the Epping facility a lowered rent increase in an attempt to end an ongoing dispute. An earlier proposal of 7.6 per cent each year, over a decade, was met with protests and rent strikes by traders last year.
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1 week ago | 
abc.net.au | Emma Field |Annie Brown
Farmers say they are losing livestock to dingoes after a ban on controlling the animals. Lethal control of dingoes in the Mallee was banned a year ago, due to concerns over the dwindling population. The Victorian government is investing in non-lethal dingo management strategies as population numbers are monitored. Warning: Readers are advised this article contains an image of dead livestock.
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1 month ago | 
abc.net.au | Emma Field |Annie Brown
Trudy Anderson is flat-out serving sausages, baked goods and cold drinks at the annual Benambra high country calf sale in Victoria's high country. She is raising money for the Benambra Neighbourhood House, which wants to build a local mens shed in the small alpine town with a population of about 170 people. The centre scrapes together funding from anywhere it can, providing vital services to a region often found lacking basic services medical, education and aged care assistance.
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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Callum Marshall |Emma Field |Charmaine Manuel
More than 100 workers at a Victorian tomato glasshouse have been indefinitely stood down after a devastating tomato virus hit the business. Agriculture Victoria revealed on January 17 that quarantine controls were put in place at Katunga Fresh in the state's north-east after tomato brown rugose fruit virus was found. The virus spread from South Australia, where it was first detected five months ago.
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Jan 24, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Cassandra Hough |Emma Field
The South Australian tomato grower responsible for bringing a damaging plant virus into Victoria says a lack of communication is to blame for the infectious transport. Last week the Victorian government confirmed the brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), which can cut tomato plant growth by 70 per cent, had been found in Victoria for the first time as a result of a plant movement from SA.
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Jan 20, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Emma Field |Emma D'Agostino
A virus threatening Australia's tomato industry has been detected in a Victorian crop. Tomato brown rugose fruit virus spread from South Australia to a glasshouse in the Goulburn Valley. Victorian authorities are confident the virus has been contained and are now trying to eradicate it. A foreign plant virus that has wreaked havoc on South Australia's tomato industry has been detected in Victoria for the first time.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Timu King |Gillian Aeria |Emma Field
The Victorian government has given the green light to environmental plans fortwo mineral sands mines in western Victoria, despite opposition from farmers. Victoria's Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny revealed today she had approved the Environment Effects Statement (EES) for the Goschen Rare Earth and Mineral Sands Project near Swan Hill and the WIM Resource Avonbank Mineral Sands Project near Horsham with some operational guidelines.
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Dec 1, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Jane McNaughton |Emma Field
Locally grown meat from small-scale farmers could be a thing of the past after another Victorian abattoir revealed it would not take on any more small orders. Kilcoy Global Foods, otherwise known as Hardwicks, which has an abattoir near Kyneton in central Victoria, said it wouldn't take orders below 15 head of beef or 50 head of lambs from the start of next year. The letter sent by the company to existing clients said the decision was made after a "detailed review of our existing arrangements".
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Emma Field
If you have noticed the price of orange juice is higher than you remember, there is a good reason. And supermarkets are not to blame. A soaring global orange juice price has bumped up local juice prices amid other rising manufacturing costs, such as power and labour costs. And that makes it bad news for juice companies that rely on imported juice concentrate as an essential ingredient. But for local farmers, the outlook has improved.
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Oct 19, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Emma Field |Warwick Long
Five days a week, while most of us are still asleep, Grant Nichol drives to the Melbourne fruit and vegetable wholesale market to haggle and sell fresh produce. But that routine could be under threat after the Victorian government revealed plans to double rents at the site over the next decade. Mr Nichol said, as a result, the wholesale market — where farmers who did not supply Coles or Woolworths often sold their wares — was under threat.
