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TASMANIAN farmers have warned that Federal Government moves to introduce a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme could cost the State’s cattle producers up to $38 million extra a year.
The warning is based on fears that the Government’s proposed emissions tax of up to $30 a tonne would increase the cost of running cattle by up to $60 a head each year.
While the Government is set to spend more than $60 million to explore the options available to the industry to reduce its methane emissions and investigate the benefits of soil carbon storage, the cost of its carbon reduction scheme to producers is the primary concern of the State’s farmers.
Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association president Roger Swain said that without a worldwide compromise on carbon emission and sequestration protocols, the State and national economies could be ruined.
He was referring to a meeting of world leaders in Copenhagen in December, which will review the Kyoto carbon emissions protocols.
“Does anyone feel as though the Tasmanian agricultural community could take a $38 million hit?” Mr Swain said.
“We work in a global marketplace.
“Why on earth would you want to disadvantage your own industries when our (international) competitors are not having the same disadvantage?”
Australian Farm Institute executive director Mick Keogh said the average cow produced about 1.5 to 2 tonnes of a carbon dioxide equivalent each year, while the average sheep produced about 200kg a year.
With the Federal Government suggesting an emissions tax of between $20 and $30 a tonne, it could add up to an extra $60 a year to run each head of cattle.
Based on the State’s herd of beef and dairy cows in 2004-05 – about 631,000 – the bill each year for cattle alone could reach $38 million.
“Consumers domestically would have to pay higher prices for sheep and beef meat, and you would suspect at that level they would switch to pork or poultry, so I have real concerns about the sort of impact these things are likely to have,” Mr Keogh said.
“I don’t know that anyone is clear yet on what the impacts might be.”
TFGA meat council chairman Ben Hooper said the potential introduction of the scheme on livestock farmers, combined with increasingly high costs for fuel and fertiliser, could “lead to 100 per cent non-profitability in the industry”.
“Modelling by the Australian Farm Institute outlines an increase in costs, and if farm businesses have to account for carbon emissions on- farm then it’s going to wipe the industry out,” Mr Hooper said.
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