As people stripped supermarket shelves across the country, small fruit shops experienced the same frenzy.
“We’ve gotten smashed,” the owner of Ryan’s Fruit & Veg in Shepparton said.
Staple vegetables — mostly cabbages, onions and potatoes — flew out of his door, and the second generation fruiterer hasn’t been able to keep the prices down.
Over the weekend, some staple, longer life vegetables went up as much as double the normal retail price.
“It’s out of my control, unless I sell at a significant loss,” he said.
It’s been a difficult time for Mr Curtis, as he’s known around town for his affordable produce — he has the slogan ‘Cheap & Fresh’ stamped on the front of his shop.
However, he’s open about the difficulties in a series of videos on his Facebook page, where he provides price updates, explains in detail the process in sourcing the produce, and implores the community to support his business during these tough times.
“My job and my responsibility is to feed Shepparton and surrounds, and I hope you’ll continue to support us,” he said in a Facebook video from March 21, which as of yesterday had clocked 22 000 views.
As to why he decided to use Facebook to get the message out there, it was the responsibility he felt towards his customers.
“It’s my job to inform my customers of certain things,” he said
“These are extreme circumstances — you have to bat and say ‘here’s what’s happening’.”
While he said it’s difficult to know what’s best to do in these circumstances, he recommended people think carefully about what they needed, and only purchase that amount.
“If you need a 5 kg bag of potatoes, buy it, but if you only need two or three potatoes, only buy that amount.”
It’s not only Ryan’s Fruit & Veg feeling the crunch. Shepparton's Finer Fruit owner Sam Rachele said he had never seen washed potatoes cost more than $10 in 25 years of operating his business.
He is in close contact with farmers and distributors, and said while the supply of fruit and vegetables was there, the cost to get it to customers was increasing.
“The packing sheds are working around the clock — they’re paying up to triple time — and they can’t keep up,” Mr Rachele said.
“Their costs are going up, and then it costs us more.
“It’s a snowball effect.”
He said the fruit market had been like the stock market — the price of broccoli jumped from $30 for 7 kg last Monday, to $50 by the end of the week.
Mr Rachele said he felt guilty having to raise prices, but he said he had no choice if his business was to survive.
“If we don’t put up our margins, we’re going to start losing money.”
He said he was thankful he had “good, loyal” customers, and his priority was to serve them the fruit and vegetables they needed.
“I’ve been loyal to my growers — I’m able to get my product and supply my customers that have been loyal to me, and that’s all that matters to me at the moment.
“Everyone is trying their best to do the right thing.
“We have to do what we can to get through this.”
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