Wayne Langford: Federated Farmers President on the low economic confidence of farmers

Farmers still feel there are tough times ahead. 

The latest Farm Confidence report from Federated Farmers shows confidence has fallen over this year, with debt, interest rates, and banks the greatest concern. 

More than half of farmers are expecting conditions to deteriorate in the year ahead. 

Federated Farmers President Wayne Langford told Ryan Bridge they’re questioning why their interest rates and margins are significantly higher than others. He said that they’ve asked for a banking inquiry as the banks and the Reserve Bank are just pointing the finger at each other. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Farmer confidence is continuing to fall. This is according to
new data from FED Farmers. A third of our farmers
are currently making a loss with debt, interest rates and
banks causing concern. Confidence has remained at a historic low level.
More than half of farmers are expecting economic conditions to
deteriorate in the year ahead. And Wayne Langford is the

(00:20):
president at FED Pharmacies with me this morning. Vayne. Good
to have you on the show. But not good results.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, morning, Ryan, Yeah, are pretty concerning results really and
unfortunate with a lot of work that both us and
the government really have been putting in to lift this confidence.
But ultimately you know that the economic posessions are really
driving this result.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Did you mentioned the banks in this report and obviously
the farmers are Is it that the banks are what
specifically is it that they're not lending or just interest
rates are too high?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, we're certainly questioning where I interest rassing. Our imagines
are finally higher than others. That's why we've asked for
the banking inquiry. There. When we're talking with the banks,
they say, hey, it's not us, it's the Reserve bank.
We're talking with the Reserve Bank. It says it's not them,
it's the banks. So we're saying, hey, can we have
an inquiry to sort this out, because in every day

(01:15):
that goes past, the significant amount of money coming out
of farmers pockets and ultimately out of rural communities as well.
So it's something that needs to be looked at pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
We've spoken in the past about regulation being one of
those bug bears for farmers. Has that sort of subsided
the concerns about regulation subsided with the new coalition government
or is it still one of the big concerns for farmers.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yes, so there's definitely still a concern there and for
things to get sorted out. We know there's been a
lot of action in that space and it sounds interesting
to see the likes of like climate change policy and
that sort of thing sliped down the ranks. So that's
definitely definitely is being picked up on by farmers. But yeah,

(02:00):
like I said, the main thing that has come out
through the surveyors, you know, cost, cost, cost, How do
we remove some costs out of farming businesses to get
them profit for again and like say, ultimately get royal
communities cranking again.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, absolutely, Wayne, thank you for that update, Wayne Lang
for the President of Fed Farmers.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
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Speaker 1 (02:22):
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