RIVERLAND: Insult season gets underway

It normally goes like this… Act 1: Dreams of a ‘better year’ keep recurring and tensions build in November as growers count down the last few sprays before ‘indicative prices’ season. Act 2:
In the second week of December, clusters of growers are invited to the ‘unveiling’, just prior to December 15. The messages vary ever so slightly from earlier years. “It’s a tough market out there; Yes the dollar is still 30¢ below parity and Yes you are correct, industry is in reasonable shape in terms of supply and demand…”