Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 6 minutes 12 seconds 6 m Rachel Mackenzie from Growcom said wholesalers should provide real time price information to fruit and vegetables growers ( Marty McCarthy ) Download 2.8 MB

Fruit and vegetable growers are demanding more transparency from wholesalers to better understand how their produce is sold and what they are getting paid for it.

The Horticulture Code of Conduct was introduced in 2006 to address growers' concerns that they were not being treated fairly by wholesalers.

However, Queensland's peak horticulture lobby group, Growcom, said the code still had not resolved some of those issues, and growers could be losing thousands of dollars as a result.

"We don't have enough transparency to put a quantifiable figure on it," Growcom's Rachel Mackenzie said, "but it can be up to thousands of dollars depending on the circumstances."

"Growers are asking, 'How come I am still being paid the same price for my product that I was getting 15 years ago, yet the consumer is paying more? Where is [the extra money] going?'"

The code of conduct is up for review, and in its submission Growcom has called for real time price information for fruit and vegetables traded in wholesale markets.

Ms Mackenzie said the system needed an overhaul if growers were to be paid more fairly.

"The first thing we can all agree on is that the horticulture code is not working and has not achieved what it set out to, which was to improve transparency in the transactions in the wholesale market," she said.

"Significant components of the industry are operating outside of the code, some of them legally through predated contracts, but a whole section are operating illegally."

Pumpkins at Brisbane's wholesale fruit and vegetable market. ( Neroli Roocke )

Despite the code of conduct being mandatory, Growcom said there were "massive" compliance issues with the Horticulture Produce Agreement, which is the main contractual instrument between wholesalers and growers.

"We did a survey and 40 per cent of growers said they did not have a Horticulture Produce Agreement with their wholesaler," Ms Mackenzie said.

"Wholesalers often utilise what they call the hybrid model, where they switch between being a merchant or an agent, depending on the market.

"This means they can make sure they get the most favourable outcome and the grower still bears all of the risk.

"We also hear cases of growers not being paid for up to 90 days, and when they get a transaction receipt they have no idea what commission they have been charged or what fees have been taken out.

"They have no way of checking whether that price was the fair price on that day."

Ms Mackenzie said a real-time pricing system should be established to help farmers understand how they were being paid.

"This will ensure growers can identify if they are being paid a fair price for that product on that day," she said.

"The markets are very much supply and demand driven, so the price paid in the markets dictates the price the supermarkets pay, and prices can jump up and down.

"The best analogy is the stockmarket. Gold can sell for once price in the morning and another in the afternoon, but you need to know what it is selling for in the afternoon, or an average for the day, which is what we're getting now."

Despite Growcom's strong criticism of the existing code, Ms Mackenzie said it was important to acknowledge the wholesalers who did treat growers fairly.

"One thing I want to be absolutely clear is that there are a large number of wholesalers who operate ethically when trading with growers," she said.

"They have long term relationships, some of those over many generations, and the wholesaler provides the information all above board.

"We are only talking about the cowboys and bad apples here."