An oversupply of poppies in the global market has forced poppy company Tas Alkaloids to reduce the total crop amount it needs from its farmers for next season, the company’s annual luncheon has been told.
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About 300 poppy farmers and industry representatives attended the luncheon that was held on Wednesday at the Grand Chancellor Hotel in Launceston. Tas Alkaloids managing director Doug Blackaby said the industry was in a state of oversupply but said it wasn’t the first time the industry had faced such an issue.
“The industry experienced unprecedented growth from 2007 until 2013 and since that year we have reduced the crop size by about 3000 hectares since that year [2013],” Mr Blackaby said.
Despite the oversupply issue at the moment, Mr Blackaby said the company and its farmers was resilient and said when the industry turned around they would be in the best place possible to capitalise on the growth.
Tas Alkaloids also announced at the lunch that it would not be growing poppies in Victoria after extensive research in the state.
The annual growers awards were also handed out at the lunch, with the top three growers for each of the three types of poppies handed down.
In the thebaine category the top three growers were Stuart Greenhill, from Northdown, Lucas and Jo McPharlane, from Hagley and Matthew Dent from Whitemore.
In the Tasman category, the winners were Tony and Mandy House, from Forest, Ivan House, from West Montague and George and Linda Griffen, of Moorleah.