The cost of food is being closely monitored as unrelenting drought across almost all of NSW takes a toll.
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NSW Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair said the situation goes well beyond the shortage of animal feed and there’s no doubt there will be flow-on effects for shoppers.
“This isn’t just about livestock, this is about everything from the poultry sector right through to our croppers – there are many different issues,” he said.
“The extent of the drought is something we haven’t seen for some time. We are looking at every single industry and looking at how we can provide assistance without having a detrimental impact.
“We are hopefully going to be as responsible as possible, we are considering everything and all options.
“We just don’t know when this will end and we need to be prepared for that.”
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW John Barilaro will be in Bathurst on Monday as part of the government’s 20 year vision for regional areas.
Rumours are rife that additional drought support measures will be announced.
“We’re monitoring everything from food prices to feed prices, and we won’t tolerate anyone trying to capitalise on anybody doing it tough and using the drought to hike up prices,” Mr Blair said.
“We’re working through a number of contingencies, there are some pretty critical moments ahead.
“We need to be thinking about what happens if we don’t have a spring break, if we can’t get a crop off, we need to be constantly thinking ahead and that’s what we’re doing.”
Mr Blair said the next few months would determine the extent of the anticipated grain shortage – which will be due to a lack of rain across the growing areas – and there was no doubt a smaller grain crop would affect the state’s GDP.
“We don’t know what that will look like until we get through the next few months. Let’s hope we can get the right bits of rain in the right areas at the right times,” he said.
NSW drought coordinator Pip Job and the Department of Primary Industries are briefing Mr Blair about the drought each week.