Fruit and vegetables set to rise more than 70 per cent

VICTORIAN consumers face price rises of more than 70 per cent on basic vegetable and fruit items such as broccoli, cauliflower, nectarines and grapes because of flood damage.

Thumbs up, thumbs down and thumbing one's nose for the flood levy

Vanniasingam Thurasingam, 57, Templestowe

Growth will be clipped, but challenge ahead is mining boom: Swan

THE floods have not changed the longer-term challenge of coping with a mining boom, Wayne Swan said yesterday as he warned of sharp rises in fruit and vegetable prices.

We have bananas, but the strawbs are pricey

GREENGROCER Steve Borsellino was "buying spinach for $3 a bunch and selling it for $2.99".

Ugliness is in eye of the fruit buyer

THERE is no significant shortage of fruit and vegetables after the Queensland floods and it is unlikely Australian grocers will need to import produce, the chief executive of the NSW Chamber of Fruit and Vegetable Industries says.

Public urged to change attitudes to 'ugly' fruit and veg

BLEMISHED fruit and vegetables will continue to reap shockingly low prices for farmers and will be turned into landfill, jam or juice unless consumers learn to be less picky permanently, a horticulturalists' representative says.

Floods empty the food bowl

BIG supermarkets are contemplating the mass import of fruit and vegetables - and are already stocking shelves with damaged produce from local growers desperate for cash after the floods.

Supermarkets considering imports to restock

BIG supermarkets are contemplating the mass importation of fruit and vegetables ��� and are already stocking shelves with damaged produce from local growers desperate for cash after the floods.