Sydney market fees don’t grow on trees
A couple of weeks ago we were alerted to a new charge being passed onto growers. This one was quite the surprise, as it came with no grower consultation. One would hazard a guess that this article may be the first time many growers in Queensland have been alerted to it.
It is called a “Porters Licence” and it has been applied by Sydney Markets Limited. In a response to our letter questioning the process and intent of their fee, Sydney Markets Limited (SML) CEO says the fee was implemented 1st July 2022 after an extensive review of unloading practices on their site revealed that SML “was not receiving a reasonable fee for Porterage operations on site”.
The $1 per pallet lift fee is said to be funding the markets “increasing costs to manage and maintain” their site in addition to “meeting their financial obligations”. On rough estimates Sydney markets unloads approximately 2500 pallets per night, and each unloading company is invoiced the fee monthly. But somehow, once again, growers are the ones drawing the short straw.
In a letter to customers, one unloader stated that they had tried absorbing the rising costs to the business for as long as possible but due to increasing costs especially in relation to fuel, gas and labour, they have had to review prcies of our services, and pass on the $1 limited lift charge as of 1st November 2022.
Anyone else sense the irony? The rationale behind the charge is that the Markets did a review and found out that they werent getting enough money for their operations, so they asked the unloaders to cough up.
Then the unloaders did a review and found out they werent getting enough money for their operations, so they pushed the charge to the grower.
Yet the grower is the only one who not only provides both the unloaders and markets with product which keeps them in business, and 5000 Sydney market employees, in jobs, but who is also, the only one who if they did a review could not increase their prices to cover reasonable operations as they are the only price taker in the system.
Seriously, what on earth.
