Australians are being warned that the price of fresh fruit and vegetables could double within a decade, as farmers face increasing pressure from rising labour, electricity costs and weather extremes.

Key points: The capacity for growers in Queensland's Granite belt to produce $300 million worth of fruit and vegetables each year has been compromised

The capacity for growers in Queensland's Granite belt to produce $300 million worth of fruit and vegetables each year has been compromised Growers' representatives believe Australia urgently needs a national conversation about consistent water supply

Growers' representatives believe Australia urgently needs a national conversation about consistent water supply There are growing calls for consumers to back farmers' calls for action

At Luigi Coco's Elimbah strawberry farm near Caboolture in Queensland, many of the paddocks that should be filled with a million young plants are still empty.

And drought ravaged strawberry nurseries at Stanthorpe in south-east Queensland are running weeks behind schedule.

"Strawberries are going to be late and I believe we're not going to get the full amount planted so we could have a scarcity of fruit on the market which will push the price up for consumers," Mr Coco, the president of the Queensland Strawberry Growers Association said.

Due to drought there have been delays in strawberry growers accessing new runners. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

Queensland farmers produce about 42 per cent of Australia's strawberries.

But this year, Mr Coco has been told he'll only get half the number of plants he ordered.

Queensland Strawberry Growers Association president Luigi Coco is calling for a national debate on water security. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"Everybody's in the same boat, everybody's calling me and asking me why they aren't getting plants and why the plants aren't coming.

"It's only when you go there and you see how severe it is and you see that there's no water anywhere and these people are trucking water in with semi-trailers that you see how enormous the problem really is."

The drought-stricken Granite Belt's capacity to produce $300 million worth of fruit and vegetables every year is compromised.

Consistent supply of water

The Coalition Government committed to provide half the funding for the proposed $84 million Emu Swamp dam, but progress has stalled.

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The Queensland Government has questions about construction costs and environmental approvals and the project isn't on Labor's list of water infrastructure projects.

Mr Coco believes Australia urgently needs a national conversation about providing a consistent supply of affordable water to farmers who are facing increasing challenges caused by the new norm of weather extremes.

"The price of food is my concern — it's going to double," he said.

"That's what I see in the next decade if we don't address the situation.

Dean West and his mother Di West have resorted to planting second-grade runners. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

"The people in the cities, when they realise that there's not enough food and the price goes up, it is too late to do anything about it.

"We need to correct the situation now - we need a nationwide water infrastructure to be sustainable long-term."

AUSVEG CEO James Whiteside doesn't doubt Mr Coco's predictions that the price of fresh fruit and vegetables could double in the next decade dur to rising labour and energy costs.

"I think frankly it's very realistic," Mr Whiteside said.

"We've seen prices for winter vegetables like broccoli, celery, doubling and tripling in some cases for relatively short terms in a number of markets.

"Those sorts of increases aren't sustained, prices come back down again and production catches up. But again it just shows how volatile the market is and how reliant we are on the weather.

"There has been a chronic underfunding in the business of storing water, and that seems to us to be a critical component of what a future strategy needs to look like," Mr Whiteside said.

James Whiteside says there has been chronic underfunding of water infrastructure for farmers. ( Supplied: AUSVEG )

Horticulture Australia Limited commissioned Dr Gordon Rogers from Applied Horticultural Research to research the impact of climate change on vegetables.

Mr Rogers said cool season crops would be most affected.

"Things like lettuce, some of the baby leaf salads, crops like spinach, rocket and also the brassica crops like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower.

"As things warm up it is a bit like the optimum production areas move south."

And while predictions are for temperatures to increase, Mr Rogers said the increased atmospheric volatility created a much larger window in which frosts could be expected.

Protected cropping in green houses and hydroponics are among potential solutions, as urban sprawl grows and viable farming areas shrink.

Gavin Scurr says it cost $400,000 a hectare to swap from growing strawberries in the ground to growing them in a substrate mix in a polytunnel. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

Protected cropping

Pinata Farms has done its best to spread the risk, growing a mix of strawberries, raspberries, mangoes and pineapples in seven different regions in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.

But that multiplied requirements for everything from tractors, to packing sheds in what is already a high cost production environment.

"We grow the best fruit and vegetables in Australia, the safest fruit and vegetables in the world," Pinata Farms managing director Gavin Scurr said.

"We need to have that conversation and recognise that it does come at a price.

"We can't do it at the same price as China, ours are heaps safer than China, but it comes at a price."

Juicy varieties like the Albion strawberry, which is vulnerable to the weather, grow well in the polytunnels. ( ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols )

Mr Scurr said Pinata farms had saved as much as 40 per cent more water by taking berries out of the soil to grow them above ground in polytunnels.

Strawberries and raspberries are planted in containers filled with a sterile coconut husk and drip-fed nutrient-rich water.

"But that comes at a huge capital cost, about $400,000-a-hectare to convert from infield strawberries to substrate strawberries," Mr Scurr said, adding that it was time that Australians really valued the cost and effort that was put into growing food.

"People don't hesitate in spending six dollars on a Big Mac and yet when a punnet of strawberries goes over three dollars they stop buying it.

"It just doesn't make sense when you look at the cost of those two individual items."

Call for consumers to back farmers

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Farmers for Climate Action CEO Verity Morgan-Schmidt said that if you eat food, you should be concerned about the future of farming in Australia.

"We actually need our consumers to be backing our farmers, to be calling for action to address the challenges," Ms Schmidt said.

"Recognising that when the prices of strawberries goes up or when something's not available that's actually reflecting the challenges that our farmers are going through and really understand that when you go through the check-out you are a part of this broader conversation about the future of Australian agriculture."

She said no one should be playing politics with food security on the line.

Farmers for Climate Action CEO Verity Morgan-Schmidt says farmers need the support of people in the cities. ( ABC Rural: Lydia Burton )

"Farmers are tremendous land custodians across the entire nation. They want to be on the front foot — they are business managers so they need to manage their risk factors.

"The idea of creating further divides when we are already in such challenging times, to be honest, is pretty sickening.

"We need to get our heads out of the sand and go right, how do we look to what climate smart agricultural practices look like and keep our industry moving forward?"

The Queensland Government provides climate and pasture information to grazing communities on The Long Paddock website.